Nepali Maoists heal rift

The second highest ranking leader of the Maoist communist party, Baburam Bhattarai, has now been re-nominated to the party's top body.

Prachanda said the move was aimed at uniting various factions in the party.

The rebels have been trying to woo mainstream political parties opposed to King Gyanendra's seizure of power.

Prachanda delivered news of Bhattarai's reinstatement in an e-mailed statement on Monday.

Prachanda, chairman of the Maoist communist party, said Bhattarai had been re-inducted into the politburo special committee.

Bhattarai is the second-in-command who led Maoist negotiators in failed peace talks with the government in 2003.

Two of Bhattarai's key supporters, Ashok and Rahul, have also been reinstated.

They were all suspended earlier this year following policy differences.

Bhattarai is known to back an alliance with the political parties who have been at loggerheads with the king over his seizure of direct rule five months ago.

Such an alliance could pose a serious challenge to the monarchy, which the rebels want to overthrow.

Prachanda earlier this month offered to hold talks with the political parties.

The parties have, however, insisted that the rebels first renounce violence before any negotiations.

At a joint meeting on Monday, the parties reiterated that the rebels must create an atmosphere of trust ahead of any dialogue.

There has been no immediate response from the rebels.

But Bhattarai's reinstatement appears to be aimed at appeasing the mainstream parliamentary parties.

Prachanda said the move was aimed at bolstering the fight against what he said was feudal autocracy.

About 12,000 people have died in 10 years of Maoist rebellion.

Meanwhile, Maoist rebels attack-ed Nepal's largest textile factory with homemade bombs and forced it to close down after the company refused to pay bribes, army and company officials said Monday.

The attack by 20 armed men happened Saturday at Sunsari, 460km southeast of Kathmandu, the officials said. No one was injured.

An army official estimated damage at 350 million Nepalese rupees (4.9 million dollars), with the factory now closed for several weeks.

"The closure has adversely affected more than 2,600 labourers working in different shifts," said the army official, who declined to be named.

The Reliance Spinning Mills, owned by Nepali investors, ships cotton yarn products to India. The 2.8 billion rupee factory started operations in 1995.

The bombs were hurled at different locations around the factory and destroyed several buildings after the rebels overpowered security guards, a company official said.

"The Maoist rebels detonated locally-made bombs at different sections of the mill, causing a heavy loss of property including machinery of the mill," said D.P. Mishra, chief executive at the plant.

Mishra said that before the attack, the rebels had demanded several million rupees in "donations" for their party but the management had refused to pay.

"If we had paid the money to the rebels we would have been arrested for financially aiding the rebels," Mishra said. "But our mill was attacked for our refusal to pay."

Maoist rebels routinely levy charges on tourists and businesses in the territory they control in the Himalayan kingdom and have stepped up attacks since King Gyanendra seized power in February.

The king said the move was needed to crush the insurgency, which has claimed around 12,000 lives since 1996.