Nepal's ruling alliance and the main Opposition Maoists held talks to set up a new coalition government after the prime minister agreed to step down following a last-minute deal to avert a political crisis in the country last week. Leaders of the three major political parties - the main Opposition CPN-Maoist,the Nepali Congress and the prime minister's Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) - met today but failed to reach an agreement to put into practice the May 28 deal. Embattled Prime Madhav Kumar Nepal had agreed to step down to secure Maoists' support to extend by one year the Constituent Assembly's term,which was to expire on Friday. The Maoist party had agreed to integrate the PLA combatants soon,disband the party's Young Communist League (YCL) and return of properties seized by them during the decade-long civil war that came to an end in 2006.
