Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has told the BBC she plans to appeal against her conviction for corruption through Pakistan's Supreme Court within days.

Benazir Bhutto speaking to Frank Gardner in Dubai

She said the situation in Pakistan had reached a point of anarchy and chaos and that she feared for her life if she returned. .

It was her first interview since coming to the United Arab Emirates from London last week.

Bhutto: If jailed husband damages party 'he will have to go'

She was clearly shaken by the enormity of the recent blows to her political future, but Ms Bhutto said the charges were absurd and that she had done nothing wrong.

Although she was at pains to point out that she had no intention of setting up a political office in this Gulf State, as reported earlier, Ms Bhutto has spent the last few days in Dubai in close consultation with her lawyers.

When asked what she would do if Pakistan's Supreme Court upheld her conviction, she said this was not a scenario she could contemplate.

Warned of threats

Benazir Bhutto currently faces arrest and imprisonment if she returns to Pakistan. She said that she had recently been warned that if she went to prison there, then her life would be threatened.

She said the country's liberal society was under attack from what she called a group of fascists who were exploiting the name of religion to try and impose a one-man, one-party dictatorship.

She said that with international aid having dried up, Pakistan needed to join other South Asian nations to form a free-trade zone.