UN council backs quick help for Nepal peace deal

United Nations, Dec 2: The UN Security Council today gave its support to plans for a quick UN response to a plea for help from Nepal's government and Maoist rebels in enforcing their landmark peace agreement.

''The Security Council agrees that the United Nations should respond positively and expeditiously to this request for assistance,'' a statement adopted unanimously by the 15-nation UN body said.

The statement expressly supported a plan outlined by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan two days earlier.

Annan proposed sending a technical assessment mission, an advance group of up to 35 monitors and an advance team of up to 25 election experts to Kathmandu in response to formal requests for help from the government and rebels.

He said he wanted the United Nations to respond ''immediately and concretely'' to the requests.

British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, who drafted the council statement, pointed proudly to the two-day response.

After years of conflict and political fragility, 'it's astonishing that Nepal today, however difficult its problems are, actually faces a better future. What we've mapped out today is a way in which the UN family, not just the Security Council, could rally behind the positive developments in Nepal,'' Jones Parry told reporters.

The two sides last week signed the comprehensive peace accord declaring a formal end to a decade-old conflict in which more than 13,000 people have died.

Under the deal, both sides have agreed to let UN civilian personnel monitor the management of their armies and arms, which are to be locked away.

The United Nations is also offering to coordinate foreign financial support for planned elections and to provide technical assistance to the Nepalese Election Commission.

REUTERS