Nepal's Maoist rebels have concluded their second round of peace talks with the government with a demand for an end to the Himalayan kingdom's constitutional monarchy, officials said today.
They said Maoist negotiator Krishna Bahadur Mahara handed over a list of demands to a government minister at a meeting at a wildlife resort in western Nepal that ended late last night.
The government and the rebels, considered ideologically close to Peru's Shining Path guerrillas, first met last month in a bid to end a five-year-old rebellion that has cost more than 1,800 lives across the mountainous nation.
The list of rebel demands, released to reporters, includes the setting up of an interim government to prepare a new constitution for the eventual dismantling of Nepal's centuries-old monarchy.
An official declined to comment on the position taken at the talks by the government, which was represented by Physical Planning and Works Minister Chiranjivi Wagle.
But in the past, the government has ruled out any compromise on the future of monarchy, saying it was open to social and economic reforms.
Impoverished but picturesque Nepal, wedged between China and India in the central Himalayas, is the world's only Hindu kingdom. It considers its monarch as the incarnation of Lord Vishnu, the Hindu god of protection.
The popularity of the king has soared since he shed absolute powers to remain a constitutional monarch in 1990.
The rebels say the traditional monarchy in Nepal ended with the massacre of King Birendra and eight other members of the royal family in June.
A royal panel blamed Crown Prince Dipendra, who fatally shot himself after the massacre. But the Maoists rejected the findings, saying the bloodbath was a conspiracy, and stepped up their violent campaign before agreeing in July to hold talks.
The rebels are demanding freedom for more than 200 jailed comrades. They also want the government to withdraw the internal security regulations that give sweeping powers to local administrators to crush the rebellion and to dismantle the armed police force set up to stamp out the insurgency.
Additionally, they want the abrogation of a 51-year-old peace and friendship treaty with neighbouring India that defines ties between the two South Asian nations.
It was not immediately clear when another meeting will be held.