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KATHMANDU, Sept 4 (Reuters) - A bomb planted by Maoist guerrillas exploded in a government office in the heart of the Nepali capital on Wednesday, wounding one person, police said.

A police official said soldiers defused a second bomb at the office in a commercial part of Kathmandu, which has been rocked by a series of blasts in the past week.

Authorities blame Maoist rebels fighting to topple the constitutional monarchy and set up one-party communist rule for the explosions but no one has claimed responsibility for the blasts.

"One employee of the municipality office was wounded in the explosion by the Maoists," the official said.

The guerrillas, inspired by the revolutionary ideas of the late Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong, have stepped up attacks in Kathmandu after a state of emergency expired last week.

Emergency rule was imposed in November and extended in February and again in May. It suspended civil liberties and gave the security forces sweeping powers.

Key political parties and the government have been divided over whether to extend emergency rule in the run-up to parliamentary elections set for November 13.

The revolt, that began in early 1996, has claimed more than 4,700 lives -- most of them rebels. More than 2,800 people have been killed in the past nine months since emergency rule was introduced. 

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