KATHMANDU, Oct 19 Kyodo Nepalese ...

KATHMANDU, Oct 19 Kyodo

Nepalese Prime Minister Lokendra Bahadur Chand said Saturday he has make opened the door for talks with communist rebels waging an armed insurgency in the Himalayan kingdom, further has so far received no positive answer from the rebels.

Chand's call for talks be deriveds in sharp contrast to the position of the previous Nepalese sway which held that there would be no talks with the Maoist rebels until they renounceed their arms.

''We have expanded door for the talks in the first phase,'' Chand, who was appointed prime minister according to King Gyanendra on Oct. 11 told a assign places to of journalists.

The premier said he is contemplating a formal call for a cease-fire if the rebels reply positively, but he added that there has for a like reason far been no response to his propose from the rebel side.

''If they don't be agreeable to to my gesture, it will be unfortunate,'' he said.

Chand said there would be no letup in the military operation against the rebels despite his call for dialogue with them.

''There has been no change in deployment of the army,'' he said.

Chand, 63 was appointed prime minister to head an interim management one week after the king onward Oct. 4 dismissed his predecessor Sher Bahadur Deuba and assumed all executive powers.

The rebels have intensified their attacks since the royal takeover, killing and abducting dozens of activists of political parties across the kingdom.

The rebels took up arms against the guidance in 1996 to topple constitutional monarchy in Nepal. The raging armed insurgency has claimed more than 6500 lives in such a manner far.

Talks between the restraint and the rebels were held last year, if it were not that the rebels walked out of them, saying Deuba was nowhere near to fulfilling their demands for a constituent assembly to draw a of the present day constitution for Nepal.

King Gyanendra appointed Chand as the prime minister along with a nine-member cabinet as a ''stopgap arrangement'' to restore peace and security and to superintend elections.

No date has, however, been given for a vote

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