Senior politicians are due to meet in Pakistan to try to resolve disputes which threaten to break up the coalition government.
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The other disagreement is over who should succeed Mr Musharraf, following his resignation on Monday.
The talks come a day after more than 60 people died in twin suicide attacks.
The party leaders failed to hammer out a deal when they met on Monday and Tuesday.
Most members of the biggest party in the coalition, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), want to nominate as president Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of their late leader, Benazir Bhutto. She was assassinated in December last year.
'Consensus' president
But Mr Sharif, who leads the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), prefers what he calls a consensus president.
The coalition was elected in February but analysts say it has failed to find solutions to Pakistan's economic crisis and to the militants in its north-western tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.
The Pakistani Taleban claimed responsibility for Thursday's suicide bombings on an ordnance factory in the town of Wah, near the capital Islamabad. It was the deadliest attack on a military site in Pakistan's history.
The militant group promised more attacks in Pakistan's major urban conurbations unless the army withdrew from the tribal areas.
On Tuesday, 32 people were killed in a suicide attack on a hospital in the northern town of Dera Ismail Khan.
Mr Musharraf, a key ally of President Bush's "war on terror", stepped down this week after nine years in power to avoid being impeached.
He sacked about 60 supreme court judges during a state of emergency in November to prevent them from overturning his re-election as president.
Analysts say that although the PPP and PML-N worked together to hound Mr Musharraf from office, there is a history of intense rivalry and mistrust between the two main parties.
The parties differ over the future of Mr Musharraf, who has been replaced by a caretaker president, the speaker of the Senate.
Mr Zardari's party has said it believes Mr Musharraf may have immunity from prosecution.
But Mr Sharif's party argues he should stand trial for, among other things, abrogating the constitution.
(BBC)
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