The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Kathmandu

Nepal's first president on Sunday appealed for rival parties in the newly-republican nation to form a consensus government and end weeks of political deadlock, in his maiden address to the people.

"I hope the new government which is going to be formed soon will work in consensus and include all the political parties and bring policies and programmes that will benefit all," Ram Baran Yadav said in a televised address.

"We don't have any alternative other than maintaining our politics of consensus and reconciliation to bring the peace process to a logical conclusion," the new president said.Nepal has been without a proper government since May 28, when a newly-elected assembly that will write a new constitution for the Himalayan country abolished a 240-year-old monarchy and declared a republic. "We have an arduous task of drafting a new constitution in two years' time, so the need of the hour is to maintain unity among all the parties represented in the assembly," said Yadav, a 61-year-old former health minister.

Nepal's Maoists won over a third of the seats in April elections to the 601-seat constitutional assembly but have been unable to muster a majority to form a government on their own.

Despite earlier saying they would not head the government to lead the impoverished nation after their presidential candidate lost, they now say they are willing to lead a new administration if certain conditions are met.

The former rebels want the main rival political blocs to guarantee that no attempts will be made to topple their government for at least two years.

They also want the rival parties to agree to allow the Maoists to push through a "minimum programme."

The ex-rebels want to deliver sweeping reforms, including a major shake-up of what they see as a feudal land-ownership structure.

However, the two largest parties in the assembly after the Maoists, the centrist Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist, have rejected the Maoist demands.