No interim govt before Maoists lay down arms

"Formation of the interim government is not possible without settling the Maoists' arms issues," Sitaula told journalists in the western tourist town of Pokhara.

"The interim government containing the Maoists will be formed only after the management of the rebels' arms."

Nepal's authorities and Maoist rebels clinched a landmark deal on June 16 which will see parliament dissolved and power shared in a new interim government, which is due to come into being within a month.

The question of the rebels laying down arms was not addressed in their eight-point agreement, although the two sides agreed to request UN monitoring of arms by the rebels and Nepal's army during voting for a body to redraft Nepal's constitution.

Sitaula told Wednesday's media conference that the Maoists, who have been fighting to install a communist republic in Nepal for the past decade at the cost of more than 12,500 lives, had agreed to settle the arms issue "before the formation of the interim government."

"The United Nations will be invited soon to manage and monitor the arms of both the state and the Maoists before going for constituent assembly elections," the minister said.