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NEW DELHI, Wednesday (AFP) India assured Nepal's visiting King Gyanendra of military help including helicopters to help combat the Maoist insurgency in the Himalayan kingdom, officials said.

Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes at a one-hour meeting with Gyanendra agreed to Nepal's request for helicopters, utility vehicles and mine-proof combat vehicles to fight the rebels, a defence spokesman said.

They also discussed an agreement under which Nepal sends troops for counter-insurgency training at an Indian army school in the northeastern state of Mizoram, the spokesman said.

The Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency said New Delhi may also dispatch experts to Nepal to train troops there.

Under a decades-old treaty India is the chief supplier of military hardware to Nepal, which is in the throes of the six-year Maoist rebellion that has cost more than 4,300 lives.

The kingdom is badly in need of equipment, as its army has only nine combat-capable helicopters.

Gyanendra, on the first foreign trip of his one-year reign, was hosted at a banquet Monday by Indian President Kocheril Raman Narayanan, who condemned the "mindless violence unleashed by Maoists in the pursuit of extremist ideologies."

"India, of course, will continue to support the government of Nepal for the steps taken by it to maintain peace and security in the country," Narayanan said.

Gyanendra has also met with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and other Indian leaders, including the main opposition Congress party's chief Sonia Gandhi.

PTI, quoting Indian sources, said Gyanendra assured Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani that Nepal would extend all cooperation to prevent the use of its territory by anti-Indian elements. 

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