Guerrillas' arms should be managed before elections: Nepali PM

Nepali Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala said Tuesday that the guerrilla' arms should be managed before the election of the Constituent Assembly so as to hold the polls in a free and fair manner.

Speaking at the first session of the summit talks between the ruling Seven Party Alliance (SPA) and top leaders of the guerrillas, Koirala also urged the guerrillas to be serious and flexible to make the peace talks a success.

"Management of arms before the election of the Constituent Assembly is a must to hold the elections in a free and fair manner, " Koirala said.

At the summit, top leader of the guerrilla Prachanda promised that the issue of guerrillas' arms management will not be an obstacle in the peace process.

Nepali Congress (Democratic) leader Bimalendra Nidhi, who took part in the summit, told Nepal FM, a private radio station, that at the meeting, the leaders of the ruling SPA and the guerrillas discussed various outstanding issues, such as modalities of arms management, determination of status of monarchy, finalization of interim constitution, setting up of interim legislature and finalizing the date for elections of Constituent Assembly.

According to a leading media group's website, eKantipur.com, the leaders agreed to hold the Constituent Assembly elections by mid-June, 2007.

The leaders of the two sides also agreed to resume the next session of the summit talks on Thursday.

Key SPA leaders including Koirala, Communist Party of Nepal ( United Marxist Leninist) general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal, Nepali Congress (Democratic) president Sher Bahadur Deuba and Prachanda and his deputy Baburam Bhattarai attended Tuesday's peace talk.

Source: Xinhua