The "summit talks" between top leaders of the ruling Seven
Parties Alliance (SPA) government and guerillas started here in
Kathmandu on Sunday morning at the Prime Minister's official
residence in Baluwatar, a local TV station reported.
The meeting, to resolve their differences over interim stature,
interim legislature and arms management, future of the king and to
fix a date for constituent assembly elections, is likely to go on
for a few day until all issues are resolved, Nepal One, one of the
leading private TV stations reported.
A day before the summit talks, leaders of both the government
and the guerillas had held an informal discussion on some of the
major issues. In the discussion, the two sides had discussed issues
like interim constitution, constituent assembly, future of the
king, and arms management.?
The Communist Party Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist General
Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal expressed optimism that Sunday's
summit talks will come out fruitful.
"The party has put its utmost efforts in making the dialogue a
success," Nepal told journalists here on Saturday.
The summit talks will focus mainly on arms management, setting
the date for elections to the Constituent Assembly, interim
constitution and referendum on the future of monarchy, he said.
A member of the guerrilla talks team, Krishna Bahadur Mahara,
also said on the same occasion that he believed the summit talks
will be conclusive.
He said the guerrillas were engaged in informal discussions in
order to make the talks result-oriented.
(Xinhua News Agency October 8, 2006)
