Former US President Carter meets Maoists leaders

Kathmandu, Jun 15 (UNI) Former US president Jimmy Carter today met Maoists leader Prachand and assured that he would take initiatives to help drop CPN-M's name from the US government's list of terrorist outfits.

During the meeting with Maoists chairman Prachand and Dr Baburam Bhattarai at Soaltee Hotel Kathmandu, Carter said he would take the issue up with US President George W Bush.

Maoists is still in the US terrorist list despite joining the government.

"We want to improve our diplomatic relations with the United States," Kantipur quoted Prachanda as saying after the meeting.

"We told him since the US government still has our party's name in its list of terrorist outfits, it would be a matter of great help if he could assist in this regard." Prachanda also told reporters that he (and his party) was ready to talk to the US government at any 'level'.

This is the first time that an official of the US has met Maoists.

"It's a matter of great delight to have a cordial talk with a former president of the United States," Prachanda said.

During the meeting Carter also expressed concern over the Maoist youth wing Young Communist League's (YCL) activities, Kantipur said.

Maoist leadership had assured Carter that if there were mistakes made then the leadership was ready to take steps to sort them out, it said.

Carter who is on a visit of Nepal, had held talks with Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala yesterday.

The former US president also met Nepali Congress General Secretary and Minister for Peace and Reconstruction Ram Chandra Poudel, CPN-UML General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal, Nepali Congress-Democratic (NC-D) leaders and Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) Rukmangat Katuwal and discussed the security situation and preparations for the Constituent Assembly (CA) elections.

UNI