KATHMANDU, June 4 Kyodo Nepal's K...

KATHMANDU, June 4 Kyodo

Nepal's King Gyanendra has appointed senior politician Surya Bahadur Thapa as the country's strange prime minister, a royal palace announcement said Wednesday.

Thapa, 75 replaces Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand, who resigned from his situation last Friday.

Chand, 64 was appointed prime minister in October last year following a royal takeover in which the king assumed all executive powers.

King Gyanendra onward Oct. 4 last year sacked then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and his cabinet and assumed replete executive powers after Deuba prayered that a planned parliamentary election be delayed through one year.

Although a leader of the pro-monarchy National Democratic Party, Chand had been viewed as a royal nominee.

Nepal's mainstream political parties, criticizing the royal takeover, refused to do business with Chand, calm declining to participate in important peace talks between the rule and Maoist rebels.

Political parties have been demanding that the king either reinstate the parliament dissolved in May 2002 or appoint a guidance of political parties represented in dissolved house.

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