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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Maoists 'quit Nepal government' | Maoists 'quit Nepal government' |
| (30 minutes later) | |
| Former Maoist rebels in Nepal say they have quit the interim government. | |
| The Maoists have been demanding the abolition of the monarchy ahead of constituent assembly elections due to be held in November. | |
| The prime minister says the constituent assembly itself must decide the monarchy's fate. Analysts say the Maoists will do badly in the polls. | |
| The Maoist move is the biggest setback to peace efforts since the rebels ended their insurgency last November. | |
| More than 13,000 people were killed during their 10-year fight for a communist republic. | |
| Failure | |
| The Maoists and the other seven parties in the interim government had been meeting in the capital, Kathmandu, to try to iron out their differences over the monarchy. | |
| King Gyanendra's future is the centre of debate | |
| "We have pulled out from the government this afternoon as the talks failed to reach an understanding on the immediate abolition of monarchy and a proportional election system," a senior Maoist, Dev Gurung, told the AFP news agency. | |
| One of the Maoists in the interim cabinet, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, blamed Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala for the breakdown in talks. | |
| "The prime minister was not ready to negotiate so his party is responsible," Mr Mahara said. | |
| He ruled out any return to armed conflict. "Now we will focus on peaceful protests to meet our demands." | |
| Mass rally | |
| Correspondents say that Prime Minister Koirala has taken a firm line in refusing to bow to the Maoists' demand that King Gyanendra be stripped of his title and the monarchy abolished. | |
| The Maoists have called a mass rally of their supporters in Kathmandu later on Tuesday. | |
| The civil war brought a decade of bloodshed to Nepal. Human rights groups regularly accused both the Maoists and the military of gross human rights abuses. | |
| The fighting brought further poverty and misery to one of the poorest countries in the world. | |
| King Gyanendra was forced to surrender his powers in April 2006 after the Maoists joined forces with a coalition of seven political parties in a sustained campaign of street protests against his direct rule. |