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KATHMANDU, Friday (AFP)

At least 32 policemen and four Maoists were killed in an attack on a police post at Sitalpati, 260 kilometres (162 miles) west of Kathmandu, officials said Friday.

Nepal's state home minister Devendra Raj Kandel said the Maoists attacked the post manned by 85 police late Thursday. In the ensuing one-and-a-half hour battle, at least 32 policemen and four Maoists were killed.

"The Maoist casualty must be more than four but only the four bodies were found on the site of the incident," the minister told AFP.

The incident occurred just hours after Nepal's parliament voted overwhelmingly for a three-month extension to a state of emergency first imposed in November to combat a violent Maoist rebellion.

The rebels have been fighting for a communist republic in Nepal since 1996 and the uprising has so far claimed the lives of over 2,400 people.

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