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KATHMANDU : Nepalese government negotiators launched peace talks with Maoist rebel leaders confident of success in ending a deadly decade-long insurgency after clearing the way for a new constitution.
The meeting which got underway at a capital hotel is the first formal discussion between the rebels and the government since they joined forces for 19 days of street protests that last month ended King Gyanendra's total rule over the country.
"We are 100 percent hopeful that the talks will succeed," said Krishna Prasad Sitaula, the interim home minister and head of the government talks team.
Maoist rebels began their insurgency in 1996 to fight for a republic that has left them in control of large parts of Nepal's rural areas. More than 12,500 people have died.
As the price for joining the political mainstream, the Maoists have demanded elections to a new body to rewrite the 1990 constitution, which would decide the future role, if any, for the monarch.
"The talks will focus on the issue of constituent assembly elections," Sitaula confirmed before heading into the talks at a hotel in the capital Kathmandu.
The Maoist team arrived a few minutes later but declined to comment to waiting media as they went into the first session.
Gyanendra seized power in February 2005, accusing the government of corruption and failing to quell the Maoist rebellion, and cracked down on political opposition and the media.
The Maoists and a seven-party coalition, former foes, struck an agreement late last year to focus their energies against Gyanendra and force him to relinquish total control.
They brought thousands on to the streets leading to violent clashes with security forces that left 19 dead but forced the king to recall parliament and end the 14-month period of total rule.
In less than a month, the interim government has moved to cut the king's powers, including ending his control over the army, and declaring the former Hindu kingdom a secular state.
Responding to a Maoist ceasefire, the government also called their own, removed the tag of "terrorist" from the Maoists and began releasing jailed rebels.
The head of the Maoist talks team, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, arrived in Kathmandu on Sunday and had been speaking regularly to senior government negotiators by telephone.
He demanded the release of up to 1,300 jailed comrades from prison, and an inquiry into the fate of some 569 rebels who disappeared during the decade-long conflict, before they would sit down to formal talks.
The government responded Thursday by saying it had freed 467 Maoists from prison and ordered the release of another 100.
The rebels want the 1990 constitution rewritten so that the monarchy is abolished and the country declared a republic.
But Koirala's party said Gyanendra, representing a line going back 238 years, could still play a ceremonial role.
- AFP /ls
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