Nepal's Maoist PM to meet Indian Premier

INDIA: Nepal's new Prime Minister Prachanda was to hold talks with his Indian counterpart Monday in New Delhi on issues ranging from trade ties to flood control measures, officials said.

Nepalese officials said before the visit he was keen to reassure India that his trip to China for the Olympics closing ceremony was not a move to end Nepal's close links with India.

The Maoist leader arrived in the Indian capital on Sunday for his first visit to neighbouring India since he took the job last month, and was to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday, a foreign ministry statement said.

Flood control is expected to be high on the agenda, an Indian official said, after the Kosi river breached its embankments in Nepal and submerged large swathes of northeast India last month.

India and Nepal traded blame over the disaster, which left hundreds of villages underwater and millions of people destitute.

Prachanda, a former school teacher whose real name is Pushpa Kamal Dahal, led a decade-long insurgency against Nepal's monarchy before signing up for peace in 2006 and embracing multi-party democracy.

Maoist information minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara said this week Nepal hoped to build a "new and smooth relationship with India in the changed political context."

New Delhi, which has been battling its own Left-wing insurgency, "has been justifiably wary of the Maoists north of the border," the Indian Express noted in an editorial Monday.

It urged New Delhi to engage the new Nepalese administration, arguing that "a genuinely friendly, stable Nepal could be very helpful indeed."

India is of vital importance to Nepal as its lone fuel supplier and key trading partner.

New Delhi, Monday,

AFP