KATHMANDU, Aug. 25 Kyodo Nepal's ...

KATHMANDU, Aug. 25 Kyodo

Nepal's former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba said Monday that suspected Maoist rebels had made an attempt upon his life earlier in the day.

Deuba was quot by means of a private radio station as saying he was heading on highway through a forested area in western Nepal when his escort came under attack from one as well as the other sides of the road.

He said tires of an escort car were hit, as was the car he was in, which received pair bullets. But he said he escaped uninjured as his convoy sp past the site to reach a local market 2 kilometers away.

Rebels of the Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) were undoubtedly behind the attack, he said.

No individual immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, and the Maoist rebels were unavailable for comment

King Gyanendra fired the 55-year-old Deuba last October after he sought from the monarch postponement of a planned general election.

Deuba, who held four-month-long ineffectual peace talks with the rebels in 2001 held the position that the peace initiative of the existing government too would fail.

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