Nepali parties, Maoists to work for democracy

The agreement, announced by Girija Prasad Koirala, is the first between the rebels and an alliance of seven political parties since King Gyanendra sacked a coalition government in February and assumed power.

"The country's seven agitating party alliance and the Maoists have agreed to a 12-point agenda to establish full-fledged democracy and launch a movement to end the tyrannical monarchy and hold constituent assembly elections under UN supervision," Koirala told a press conference.

"However the two sides will not launch the joint movement until the Maoists surrender their arms," said Koirala, who leads the Nepali Congress, the largest party, and has been premier of the Himalayan kingdom four times.

Gyanendra has said he sacked the government for its failure to tackle the rebellion which has claimed more than 12,000 lives since 1996.

In response to pressure from India, Britain and the United State, Gyanendra offered last month to hold local elections in February 2006 and parliamentary elections in 2007.

But the political alliance rejected the gesture because of continued restrictions on media freedom and civil rights.

Maoist rebel leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Prachanda, also issued a statement Tuesday announcing the agreement but did not mention abandoning arms.

"The seven-party alliance and the Maoists have reached a 12-point agreement during various phases of talks," the emailed statement said.

Last week Koirala had appealed to the rebels to form an alliance with mainstream parties to restore democracy.

The rebels have previously called for a constituent assembly to review the constitutional monarchy founded in 1990, although political parties had earlier rejected the idea.

A report in The Indian Express newspaper last week said the Maoists were willing to disarm under United Nations auspices.

In September the rebels announced a three-month unilateral truce in what analysts saw as an attempt to win public support and work with mainstream political forces.

"The tie-up is a natural course of action because the king has not sought to reconcile with political parties," said senior human rights leader Padma Ratna Tuladhar, who has led government negotiations with the Maoists in the past.

"The political leaders are joining hands with the Maoists because the king has sidelined the parties."