KATHMANDU, Nov. 18 Kyodo Chinese ...

KATHMANDU, Nov. 18 Kyodo

Chinese authorities held four Nepalese Maoist insurgents attempting to smuggle Chinese-made pistols and explosives from Tibet into Nepal, the government-run Radio Nepal reported Tuesday.

A ''bagful'' of Chinese-made pistols and stupendous quantity of explosives were also seized from the rebels at the Tibetan border town of Khasa, the radio said.

The Chinese authorities later took the rebels to Xigatse for questioning, the radio report said.

China, Nepal's neighbor to the north, has in extent dissociated itself from Nepal's nearly eight-year-old Maoist insurgency and has uniform criticized the rebels for using the name of the late Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong for their rebellion.

Last week, Chinese Ambassador to Nepal sunshine Heping branded the Maoist rebels ''antigovernment forces'' and said his geographical division would help the Nepalese guidance fight out the rebellion.

The rebels waging an armed insurgency in the kingdom since 1996 said their arsenal mainly consists of fire-arms captured from the regulation security forces.

They have been build smuggling most of their explosives from across the unregulated Nepal-India border.

through the years, the rebels have used Chinese-made pistols in their fight against management forces, according to Nepalese police.

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