Peace and stability in Nepal must come through dialogue: PM

Kochi, Apr 19 (UNI) India wants Nepal to be a flourishing democracy, and peace and stability there have to be achieved through meaningful negotiations between the King and the political parties, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today.

''Peace and stability in Nepal are important to us for more than one reason. We would like Nepal to be a flourishing democracy and we hope that all concerned will work towards realising it,'' Dr Singh told a news conference here.

He ruled out any proposal to send peacekeeping troops to the embattled Himalayan Kingdom, saying its political problems should be resolved through purposeful dialogue between the political parties and King Gyanendra.

Nepal, already struggling to contain a decade-long Maoist insurgency, has seen increasingly fierce protests in the past few weeks against the rule of King Gyanendra who dismissed the government and assumed power in February last year.

In renewed efforts by India to pursuade the King to initiate a dialogue with political parties in Nepal, the Prime Minister's special envoy Dr Karan Singh and Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran arrived in Kathmandu today.

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