Nepal's PM agrees to resign after deal to avert crisis

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KATHMANDU, May 29 (AFP): Nepal's prime minister has agreed to resign, his spokesman said Saturday, as the country's three main parties prepared to form a power-sharing government following a deal to avert a political crisis.
Madhav Kumar Nepal said he would step down in a last-minute bid to secure the support of Maoist lawmakers for a bill to extend parliament's term, which was due to end Friday and leave the country without a functioning legislature.
The opposition Maoist party won elections in 2008 and took power for nine months, abolishing Nepal's 240-year-old Hindu monarchy and turning the country into a secular republic.
But their government fell last year in a disagreement over the integration of their former fighters into the national army, and they have been agitating for a return to power ever since.
As the largest party in parliament they are likely to take a lead role in any power-sharing government, but the prime minister's spokesman said there were issues to be addressed before this could happen.
The prime minister wants to address the issue of how land seized by the Maoists during the conflict will be returned to its rightful owners, another key tenet of the peace deal, Rijal said.