Nepal expands cabinet ahead of Maoist talks

At the same time, a senior Maoist leader said he had "big hopes" for the peace talks, a day after arriving in the capital Kathmandu.

Koirala was named the country's new prime minister last month after King Gyanendra gave in to weeks of pro-democracy protests and ended nearly 15 months of his absolute rule.

He brought in five new ministers and six junior members to his cabinet, raising its strength to 18 including himself, a palace statement said.

It said King Gyanendra had appointed the new ministers on the recommendation of Koirala.

The cabinet expansion paves the way for preliminary peace talks between the government and the rebels.

No date has been set for the talks, which are expected to lay the groundwork for a meeting between Maoist chief Prachanda and Koirala.

"We have come with the message that we can establish a peaceful and progressive Nepal," senior rebel leader Krishna Bahadur Mahara told independent Nepal FM radio, a day after he arrived in the Nepali capital to head the Maoist team.

"We have come with big hopes this time," said Mahara, who is yet to emerge in public.

The government has chosen Home (interior) Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula to participate in the talks.

Previous peace talks with the rebels collapsed in 2001 and 2003 over the future of monarchy.

Mahara said the government was not serious then.

"This time the situation is different," he said. "We hope that we don't have to take up arms again."

The 84-year-old Koirala was sworn in last month after at least 17 people were killed and thousands wounded during weeks of protests that forced King Gyanendra to hand power back to political parties.

The popular upsurge led to the setting up of a multi-party government and the country's parliament being reinstated.

The new parliament approved a plan to hold elections for a special assembly to decide the future of monarchy, a key rebel demand.

A veteran politician of the Nepali Congress party, Koirala has kept the key defence and royal palace ministries for himself in the expanded cabinet, which includes members of four of the seven parties that led the protests against the king.

The Maoists, fighting to turn Nepal into a communist state, agreed to talks after the multi-party cabinet matched a unilateral truce they had declared.