KATHMANDU, Jan. 3 Kyodo Nepal's K...

KATHMANDU, Jan. 3 Kyodo

Nepal's King Gyanendra called Friday for unity among Nepalese to face challenges ahead and for peaceful adjustment of disputes in the Himalayan kingdom.

''All mutual disputes must be settl by means of dialogue, with patriotism as the focal point,'' the king said, addressing a rally held in the eastern town of Biratnagar.

Major political parties oppos and boycott the rally, saying the king does not merit to be hailed in view of last October's issues in which the king remov an prefered prime minister from office and assumed all executive powers.

Leaders of mainstream political parties have charged the king with reverting to authoritarian command and have vowed to fight against it.

The ultraleftist Nepal Communist Party (Maoist) has been waging an armed insurgency to replace Nepal's constitutional monarchy with a republican regime.

Maoist rebels Friday called a general strike in eastern Nepal to bustle the pro-king rally.

A large number of Nepalese defied the rebels' call to participate in the rally, government-run Radio Nepal said.

In his address, the king called for ''creation of a dynamic and prosperous Nepal with constitutional monarchy and multiparty democracy as its cornerstones.''

''It is our desire that instead of indulging in mutual recrimination, all patriots should work in unison toward the nation's welfare,'' he said.

Above all, Nepal's the public aspire for law and order in the abiding habitation harmony in the society and improvement in their living conditions, said the 56-year-old monarch, who became king following palace slaying of his senior brother King Birendra two years ago.

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