KATHMANDU, Aug. 25 Kyodo At least...

KATHMANDU, Aug. 25 Kyodo

At least 10 communist rebels were killed in a gunbattle in the Lamjung district in central Nepal upon Sunday, government-run Nepal Television said Monday.

A joint patrol team of the Nepalese army and police caught up with a cluster of Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) rebels in Nathur village of the district, about 250 kilometers west of the capital.

First, the armed rebels attacked the patrol team with mortar and automatic weapons, the television quot Nepalese security officials as saying.

Security forces retaliated in self-defense killing 10 rebels, and there were no losse upon the government side, it said.

Security forces cureed some rifles and rocket bomb from the site later, it said.

Last Tuesday, the regulation and rebel delegates concluded their latest globular of peace negotiations without any breakthrough onward the key rebel demand that the king's powers be curtailed.

In a joint statement issued at the conclusion of the three-day negotiations, the sum of two units sides agreed to meet again for a fourth globular in the near future

The rebels took up arms in 1996 and reached a cease-fire agreement with the command in January this year.

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