Monday, February 13 2006 15:24 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kathmandu: On the tenth anniversary of the Maoist revolt in Nepal today (Feb 13 2006), rebel leader Prachanda has said foreign help to the Nepalese army has made it difficult for them to "move forward militarily" and favoured a political solution to the conflict.

"I believe we can, and we have to conquer Kathmandu both militarily and politically. That is why we have not thought about it in a purely military way," Prachanda told to sources.

"When we started the people's revolution. We believed that we could conquer Kathmandu military. But later, when countries like the US, the UK and India started supporting the Royal Army militarily - against our people's war and the revolt of Nepali people - that has posed some difficulties," he said.

Prachanda said though Kathmandu could be conquered militarily, in today's situation it would cause a lot of harm to the Nepali people. "That is why we like the political situation better. And we are working towards it," he added.

Asked about King Gyanendra, he said the only future he can envisage for him is exile or trial. "I think he will either be executed by the people's court or may be executed," he said. However, he also said that Nepal could remain a monarchy if people wanted it.

Asked about the agreement with mainstream political parties and if he was ready for peace, Prachanda said "We are always ready for peace, and when we started the people's war, after a while we said that if the ruling classes would want to peacefully solve the problems of Nepali people, we were ready."

Now, in the agreement with the parties, we are still saying that if there is an environment where people can give their own verdict, through an election of a constituent assembly, where people have a voice on the kind of governance that they want, if that right is with the people, then we are ready to have a political competition with the parties," he said

The rebel leader said their struggle is for a democratic republic. "We believe that with the election of a constituent assembly, a democratic republic will be formed in Nepal. And this will solve the problems of Nepalis and lead the country into a more progressive path. And since we have said that we'd go for a peaceful election of the constituent assembly, we're ready to follow whatever the verdict of the people is, he said.

Prachanda blamed the King and the army for the escalating violence in the Himalayan Kingdom and said Gyanendra's agenda was 'negating' the possibility of a compromise "To ensure that the minimum bloodshed is inflicted on Nepali people, we had a four-month-long cease-fire.

We have also been saying that we would agree to whatever the verdict is of the constituent assembly. And we have committed to accept multi-party competition. That's why, the way violence is escalating in this country, the total responsibility falls on Gyanendra and his royal army, he said.