UN ready to start Nepal arms monitoring by Jan 15

KATHMANDU, Jan 5 (Reuters) UN officials will be able to start monitoring the arms of Maoist rebels and the army on January.

15, an official of the world body said today, a key step in the nation's bid for lasting peace.

Monitors will visit sites for storing weapons and be in a position to register them in the next 10 days, said Ian Martin, the personal representative of the UN secretary-general.

''Registration teams provided by UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) are on stand-by to begin registration from January 15, initially of weapons and later of combatants,'' Martin told reporters in Kathmandu, the Himalayan nation's capital.

But he was not sure when the actual process of locking up arms would begin.

''I can't still predict when the first of the weapons will go to the containers,'' Martin said, adding 13 UN monitors would start taking their places in Kathmandu and in Nepalgunj, 320 km west of the capital, from next week to start work.

The arms will be locked in metal containers and the UN will eventually provide 24-hour-a-day surveillance.

The monitors are part of a 35-member advance team the UN has approved to push forward the peace process that began in May last year.

The world body says a full monitoring mission will take some time to be in place and has not set a deadline.

Last month, the government and Maoists signed a landmark peace deal declaring an end to a decade-old anti-monarchy revolt in which more than 13,000 people have been killed.

Under the deal, the Maoists are supposed to join an interim government after locking their arms up with the UN which will also supervise an equal number of arms to be surrendered by the government army.

REUTERS AKJ RN1830