Nepali parties demand limit on king's power

King Gyanendra seized power, declared a state of emergency and suspended most civil liberties on Feb. 1, saying that successive governments had failed to quell a Maoist insurgency. The emergency was lifted last week, apparently under international pressure, but the king still rules the country through a royal council of appointed ministers.

"Reinstating parliament is the starting point in our common agenda," Mahesh Acharya, a senior official of the Nepali Congress party, said on behalf of the seven parties.

The common agenda would also include constitutional reform to restrict Gyanendra's powers and demand that the monarch release all political detainees, restore press freedom and scrap a royal anti-corruption body that many say targets the king's political opponents, said Madhav Nepal, chief of the Communist Party of Nepal.

Girija Prasad Koirala, chief of the Congress party, which was in power during most of the past 14 years of democratic rule, said the full agenda would be announced later Sunday.

Some 3,000 politicians, student leaders, journalists and rights activists were arrested after the royal takeover in an effort to block dissent. Though the emergency has been lifted and many detainees have been released, more than 200 protesters still remain in detention.

Party spokesman Acharya said national elections were unlikely anytime soon, but that restoring the parliament would at least bring back multiparty government.

After Gyanendra seized power, the insurgents stepped up their campaign of road blocks and ambushes targeting government troops. The rebels, who claim to be inspired by Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, have been fighting since 1996 to topple Nepal's monarchy and establish a socialist republic. The revolt has claimed more than 11,500 lives.

Meanwhile, the deputy Speaker of Nepal's dissolved parliament was prevented from leaving the country on Saturday for a third time since the king sacked the government on February 1, a party source said.

Chitra Lekha Yadav was stopped as she tried to board a flight to New Delhi, the Nepali Congress (Democratic) party source said.

"It was the third time Yadav had been stopped at the airport since February 1," the source said.

Politicians, human rights activists and journalists have been prevented from leaving the country since King Gyanendra seized power to deal with a paralysing insurgency by Maoists fighting to install a communist republic.