'Nepal extends deadline for new Govt'

According to an official, Nepal's president has extended a deadline for ex-rebel Maoists to form the new republic's first government.

Nepal's president has extended a deadline for ex-rebel Maoists to form the new republic's first government, an official said on Wednesday.

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President Ram Baran Yadav had asked the Maoists, who won recent elections, to form a national consensus government by Tuesday, but they failed to attract support from other parties.

Political wrangling has left Nepal in limbo with no formal government since it abolished its 240-year-old monarchy and became a federal democratic republic in May.

"The president has given the Maoists three days of additional time to form a consensus government," Lokhari Pandey, joint-secretary of the president's office, told AFP.

"The deadline was extended on the request of Maoist chairman Prachanda after reaching an understanding with other political parties."

The Maoists presented a policy programme earlier this week in a bid to build a consensus to lead the next government.

It focused on land reform, youth unemployment, and fuel and food supplies.

Maoists emerged as the single largest party in a newly-elected, 601-seat Assembly that will produce the impoverished country's new constitution within two years.

The ultra-leftists ended their decade-long bloody communist uprising in 2006.