Monday, June 12 2006 10:40 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kathmandu: In the first face-to-face meeting between the seven-party government officials and Maoist leadership since mutual declaration of ceasefire, Nepal Home Minister Krishna Sitaula yesterday (June 11, 2006) held talks with the rebel chief Prachanda in western Nepal.

Sitaula, who is also government's peace talks coordinator, personally flew in to Siklesh village, about 200 km west of the capital Kathmandu to meet Prachanda aka Puspakamal Dahal, the chairman of CPN-Maoist and his deputy Baburam Bhattarai.

They met in the Pache village development committee in Kaski district, some 40 km away from the famous tourist spot Pokhara, and held talks for two-and-half hours, according to the National News Agency.

However, details of the talks are not yet known.

This is the first high level talks between the Maoist leadership and the Government after the formation of the seven-party Alliance government.

However, there was no immediate comment on the talks from the Maoists' side.

Sitaula directly flew to the spot on helicopter from Kathmandu to meet Prachanda, the report said.

The meeting comes two days after Prachanda in a televised interview demanded immediate dissolution of the House of Representatives.

The Government had recently come under criticism from ruling parties for moving slow on the peace process.

The first round of talks between the government and the Maoist representatives was held on May 26 in Gokarna Resort.