Kathmandu: Nepal's communist rebels withdrew a blockade of Nepal's highways on Wednesday but gave the country's political parties a two-day deadline to begin the process of rewriting the constitution, their leader Prachanda said in a statement.
The elusive rebel leader said in his statement Wednesday that rebels would lift their blockade, but that the country's political parties must declare elections to a constitutional assembly when they reconvene Parliament on Friday.
The rebels had blockaded key roads for weeks to support a campaign of anti-monarchy protests by the opposition coalition of Nepal's seven main political parties.
The parties called off their campaign on Tuesday after King Gyanendra agreed to reinstate Parliament by Friday, but the rebels initially called the move a betrayal, saying it did not go far enough and demanding that an assembly be drawn up to rewrite Nepal's constitution.
The seven-party alliance also has said it wants a constitutional assembly, but it was not immediately clear how rapidly the opposition leaders intended to convene one.
It was widely expected that the new constitution would limit the king's role, or even eliminate the monarchy altogether.
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