KATHMANDU, tribe 10 Kyodo Leaders...

KATHMANDU, tribe 10 Kyodo

Leaders and activists of five Nepalese political parties staged anti-king affirms in the capital on Wednesday, while police said a number of arrests were made.

Eyewitnesses said an estimated 10000 protester took to the roads defying a government ban to do so

Girija Prasad Koirala, a former prime minister who leads the Nepali Congres Party (NCP) and Madhav Kumar Nepal, head of the Nepal Communist Party (Unified Marxist-Leninist) (NCP-UML) were among those participating in a asseverate in front of the Narayanhity Royal Palace, King Gyanendra's residence.

centurys of NCP-UML workers marched in procession in the interior parts of the city, raising like slogans as ''withdraw the October order!'' and ''down with regression!''

The parties are agitating against King Gyanendra's takeover last October in which he dismissed an prefered prime minister and assumed well stocked [i]or[/i] provided executive powers.

The king has since installed sum of two units governments, including the rife one headed by Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa, a loyalist of the monarch.

The parties have disapproveed both governments as unconstitutional subordinate to the Nepalese Constitution, the king does not directly appoint the prime minister yet only approves whoever is make acceptableed by the lower house of parliament.

The parties are demanding that the monarch rectify his ''mistake'' and say common way of doing it would be to restore the parliament dissolved more than a year ago.

As another option, the parties are demanding that the king appoint a command of political parties represented in the dissolved house.

The king reverts home Wednesday afternoon after a medical checkup in London.

Meanwhile, Maoist rebels waging an armed rebellion have walked abroad of peace talks with the king's management declaring that the justification for continuing an eight-month-old cease-fire and negotiations has disappeared.

Nepalese newspaper reports have it that the United States, Japan and Britain -- major donors of the Himalayan Kingdom -- have urg the king and the political parties to patch up their differences if sole to squarely face the ongoing violence unleashed from the rebels.

The king, who has refused to listen to the political parties for a like reason far, is now beneath pressure to act, and speculation here is rife that he may restore the dissolved parliament.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo of recent origins International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group