Nepal's King Gyanendra has pleaded for international support to crush a long running anti-monarchy Maoist revolt in which thousands have died.
Britain and India have supported Nepal in its fight against the guerrillas who want to set up a communist republic in the world's only Hindu kingdom.
But the two countries suspended military aid after Gyanendra sacked the government, imprisoned activists and politicians and assumed full powers earlier this month.
The United States has demanded the king restore democracy in the nation tucked between Asian giants, China and India.
"We want our friends to help us by word and by deed. If that is not the agenda they want to go along with, then they should tell us what their agenda is," independent online Nepalnews.comquoted the king as saying yesterday in his first meeting with editors of leading Nepali newspapers since his power grab.
"Are they telling us that we should not fight against terrorism, that we should put our democracy into jeopardy?" he asked in a reference to a global outcry against him.
"When we are fighting for democracy and against terrorism, the Nepali people want to know what our friends are thinking."
The king has justified his moves, which also include detaining politicians, suspending civil liberties and curbing press freedom, saying it was necessary to crush the guerrillas who control large swathes of countryside.
India has provided arms, trucks and helicopters to a poorly equipped Nepali army battling the Maoists in a nine-year conflict.
Britain suspended a planned £1.3 million aid package to provide vehicles and equipment for night flying and bomb disposal.
The Maoists have imposed a nationwide transport blockade to protest the royal power grab, disrupting road transport and supplies of grains and vegetables in the mountainous nation for nearly two weeks.