Nepali opposition gears up for protests

"Our party has already launched a month-long political campaign across the country to protest against the autocratic regime," Pradeep Nepal, spokesman for the Nepal Communist Party-United Marxist and Leninist (NCP-ML) told AFP.

"A joint movement with the seven-party alliance will also be organised side-by-side."

The first major protest is timed to coincide with the return on December 2 of King Gyanendra from three-weeks of overseas official visits.

Protests and strikes have been on the rise in the restive country since the king dismissed the government in February and placed politicians under house arrest.

In a move that raised howls of international protest, the king sacked the government in what he described as an effort to quell a Maoist insurgency that has claimed more than 12,000 lives since 1996.