Nepal rebels step up attacks ahead of elections

PANAUTI, Nepal - Maoist rebels in Nepal have launched a series of attacks ahead of controversial elections, killing eight people and wrecking a government building near Kathmandu.

On the eve of the vote, which has been boycotted by the main political groups, the capital's usually bustling shopping districts and crowded streets were deserted with most residents heeding a strike call.

Maoists killed a taxi driver in the temple town of Lalitpur on the outskirts of Kathmandu - apparently for defying their call for a week-long strike aimed at disrupting the vote, a police officer said.

The municipal poll, ordered by King Gyanendra who fired the government and seized absolute power last year, is the country's first election since 1999.

The main political parties are demanding that the king hand power back to an all-party government. Political leaders say that they fear the king will use the municipal polls to tighten his grip on power.

On Monday, up to 300 Maoist guerrillas, many of them women and nearly all armed, attacked Panauti town, 30 km (20 miles) east of Kathmandu, killing one soldier and a police officer as they fired on an army post, a government official said.

During the raid the local administration building was bombed.

More than 100 soldiers and armoured personnel carriers were in the town.

An army officer said five soldiers and policemen were also killed when Maoists attacked an army patrol at Karmagachi village, 450 km east of Kathmandu, on Monday.

"We have also recovered two rebel bodies there and the search is going on," the officer told Reuters.

More than 13,000 people have died since the Maoists, who want to overthrow the monarchy, launched the revolt in 1996.

The violence came as Maoist chief Prachanda told a local newspaper, the rebels were ready for meaningful talks with the government if it agreed to their demand for an assembly to prepare a new constitution.

"We are open to holding unconditional discussions on all issues including the constituent assembly," Prachanda told the Kathmandu Post, reiterating a long standing rebel position.

The rebels pulled out of peace talks in 2001 and 2003 amid a row over the future of the king, who is considered a god by devout Hindus.

In a rare interview, Prachanda said the rebels would match any government truce and accept the outcome of elections for a constituent assembly supervised by an interim government.

"We will accept it if the constituent assembly says we want the monarchy," he said. "We will accept it even if the people say we want an active monarch."

In January, the Maoists ended a four-month-old unilateral cease-fire after the royalist government refused to match their truce calling it a rebel ploy to re-group or reorganise.

- REUTERS