At least 51 Maoist rebels have been killed in a foiled attack on an army camp in western Nepal, according to state radio.
Five soldiers were also killed in the fighting that lasted from Wednesday until today, the radio said citing security officials.
There were 85 soldiers at the makeshift camp in Salyan district, about 200 miles west of Katmandu, Nepal's capital, at the time of the attack by nearly 500 rebels.
"There are lot of casualties on the rebel side and some on the government side, also," Defence Ministry spokesman Mr Bhupendra Poudel said yesterday.
Fighting in a six-year insurgency by Maoist rebels has intensified in recent months, with the army joining police in a campaign to root out rebel fighters from strongholds in remote mountainous areas near India's northeastern border.
Hundreds of people have been killed in battles since November, bringing to 3,500 the number of lives claimed since the rebels began fighting in 1996 to abolish Nepal's constitutional monarchy.
The rebels draw their inspiration from Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong.
The situation escalated to the point that the government instituted emergency rule last autumn, saying authorities needed it in order to effectively fight the rebels.
The government routinely reports high rebel casualty figures in battles and low army death tolls.
Casualty reports cannot be independently verified, as gunbattles often occur in remote mountain areas. Neither human rights organisations nor journalists can go to the regions of fighting without military permission.