Nepal wants to extend truce with Maoists

The two sides began observing the ceasefire last week for the nine-day festival Dassain, which marks the triumph of good over evil and is the biggest religious holiday in the world's only Hindu kingdom.

The truce in the kingdom, reeling from the increasingly bloody eight-year-old insurgency, was due to expire Thursday.

"This (ceasefire) policy will continue until the Maoists break it from their side," Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba told reporters.

The move followed widespread appeals to both sides from human rights groups and politicians to extend the truce in the impoverished kingdom whose economic woes have been deepened by the conflict.

However, government spokesman Mohammad Mohshin said Nepal was keeping the "army and security on high alert in case the Maoists start any armed action".

Over 10,000 people have died since the the Maoists began their armed uprising in 1996 to topple the constitutional monarchy and install communist rule.

Meanwhile, Nepal's revised anti-terrorism law will worsen the problem of forced disappearances in the country, Human Rights Watch charged Monday.

"This law is a major step backwards. It's likely to lead to more disappearances and more torture of people accused of being against the government or aligned with Maoist insurgents," said Brad Adams, executive director of the New York-based Human Rights Watch's Asia division.