UN team to assess arms monitoring in Nepal

KATHMANDU, July 20 (Reuters) A UN team will visit Nepal next week to assess how to monitor arms held by government forces and Maoist rebels as they move towards peace, a senior minister said today.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Khadga Prasad Oli told Reuters the team would look at various ways the United Nations could help bolster peace talks.

''This will include the monitoring and disarmament of the Maoists,'' said Oli. ''The UN will also ensure that the government army remains inside the barracks and is not used to influence the elections,'' he said.

The Maoists -- whose decade-long fight for a communist state has left over 13,000 dead -- declared a ceasefire in April after King Gyanendra bowed to weeks of protests and ended his absolute rule, handing power to an interim multi-party government.

The government coalition agreed to include the Maoists in an interim cabinet, which would oversee elections in 2007 for an assembly to be charged with mapping out a new constitution.

However, the rebels have refused to surrender their arms and want their force of some 36,000 fighters to merge with state troops after the vote.

''We are strongly opposed to the decommissioning of our army alone,'' rebel spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara said.

Mahara said the guerrillas were ready to stay in camps with their arms and be supervised by the United Nations, only if government forces also remained in their barracks under the same conditions.

Monitoring arms is seen as crucial to a free and fair vote as the guerrillas control large swathes of the Himalayan nation and are known to enforce their writ through threats.

Oli said the UN team was coming in response to a letter from Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala to Secretary-General Kofi Annan seeking UN support.

REUTERS SP VA BST1215