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KATHMANDU, Tuesday (AFP) Nepal announced a 22-day ban on public meetings and demonstrations in the capital Kathmandu and two other cities amid political unrest and a surge in Maoist violence. The ban will be in place in Kathmandu and the cities of Lalitpur and Bhaktapur from Tuesday until September 23, state-run radio said.

The government also announced an 11:00 pm to 4:00 am curfew in Kirtipur municipality, on the southwestern outskirts of Kathmandu, from Monday until September 23.

"It is learned that Maoists have been threatening and disturbing the local people of Kirtipur. To protect life and property of the people, the prohibition law (on meetings and demonstrations) has been enforced," state radio announced.

Security personnel have been ordered to shoot anyone who tried to defy the curfew, it said.

A cabinet minister Monday told AFP Monday the government had decided to ban meetings of five or more people in the Kathmandu Valley "so we can maintain law and order."

Meanwhile five Maoist rebels and two policemen were killed in overnight fighting. The deaths occurred in separate attacks on two police posts about 500 km (310 miles) east of the capital, Kathmandu, a police spokesman said.

Five police officers were also wounded.

Clashes between Maoists and security forces have increased since the rebels Wednesday abandoned a seven-month truce and peace talks aimed at ending their insurgency, which they launched in 1996 to overthrow the constitutional monarchy. The insurgency has claimed more than 7,800 lives.

The ban makes illegal a round of protests planned from Thursday by Nepal's five major political parties, which have been pressing for new elections since King Gyanendra dismissed the elected government in October 2002.

Such restrictions on public assembly were imposed nationwide in November 2001 after the rebels broke an earlier ceasefire, but ended in August last year when parliament lifted a state of emergency. The ban came as diplomats pressured major parties to give up months of protests, following a surge in Maoist violence in which 30 people were reported killed.

Officials said five weekend clashes were the result of Maoist ambushes on security patrols, which the army has stepped up in rural areas since the guerrillas abandoned the truce.

Troops have been put on high alert amid fears of trouble ahead of a September 18-20 nationwide strike the Maoists called to push for the abolition of the monarchy. The US and British ambassadors in Kathmandu, Michael Malinowski and Keith Bloomfield respectively, met with former premier Girija Prasad Koirala, president of the Nepali Congress, and urged him to call off the protests in light of the renewed violence, diplomatic sources said.

They pointed out that the target of their protests, the king, was not in Nepal but in Britain for a medical check-up.

Indian Ambassador Shyam Sharan held a similar meeting with Madhav Kumar Nepal, the consensus prime ministerial candidate of the five-party alliance. Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa launched a personal appeal to Koirala, warning him "the Maoists could infiltrate and take over the parties' protests.

Baburam Bhattarai, who was the Maoists' chief negotiator in three rounds of failed talks, last week issued a statement in support of the parties' demonstrations.

The five parties, which all oppose the Maoists, have not reacted to the international and domestic pressure to suspend their demonstrations.

Amid the renewed violence, the chief administrators of 55 of Nepal's 75 districts have each sent an appeal to the central government for security reinforcements "to cope with the increased threat."

The requests came after the government at the weekend deployed armed guards around the residences of current and former political leaders in Kathmandu following reports the Maoists had put 217 prominent figures on a hit list.

The Maoists have been blamed for a series of assassination bids in Kathmandu since pulling out of the truce, including the killing Thursday of an army colonel based at the royal palace..

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