US, UN welcome Nepal king's pledge to hand over power

The United States and the United Nations -- tough critics of King Gyanendra since he seized absolute power in the Himalayan nation in February 2005 -- both said the monarch's move on Friday was the first step on the road to democracy.

"We welcome the idea, welcome the proposal that the king would now turn to the political parties to form a government, to select a prime minister, to hold elections," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told foreign journalists.

"That's extremely important."

"We were outspoken about the need for Nepal to return to a democratic path," she said, adding that she expected the king to live up to his pledge.

On Friday, King Gyanendra asked the opposition to name a prime minister after two weeks of violent demonstrations and a crippling general strike, saying: "We are committed to multi-party democracy and to constitutional monarchy."

But the three main parties in the seven-party opposition alliance, which was meeting on Saturday to determine how to proceed, said the king's move was not enough and vowed the protests would continue.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan called for an "orderly" transfer of power to the Nepalese political parties and an end to the weeks of conflict, which has so far left at least a dozen dead and hundreds more wounded.

"It is up to the parties to work out the modalities for the transfer of power in a timely, orderly and responsible manner," Annan's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.