KATHMANDU, Aug 24: Nepal's Maoist rebels have temporarily suspended a crippling economic blockade of the capital from Wednesday, saying the move is in response to popular appeals.

Analysts said the guerrillas, fighting to topple Nepal's constitutional monarchy, were losing the sympathy of the poor as the week-old blockade began to hit Kathmandu's 1.5 million people.

"The indefinite transport blockade has been postponed for one month with effect from August 25," the Maoists said in a statement on Tuesday. But they warned of tough measures if the government continued to ignore their demands to release detained guerrillas, probe the killings of activists in what they say were fake gun battles and provide information on thousands of missing comrades.

"We will be forced to bring a tougher programme in future," the statement said. The embattled government said the ending of the blockade would help efforts to start a peace dialogue.

"This is a positive step by the Maoists in response to the government request for a serious peace dialogue aimed at ending the Maoist problem," Agriculture Minister Homnath Dahal said.

Earlier on Tuesday, the rebels blockading the Nepali capital killed four soldiers in an attack on a patrol trying to keep the main highway to Tibet open for traffic, an army spokesman said.

The gun battle, about 100 kilometres north of Kathmandu, was the first clash over the blockade since it began a week ago. Until then the rebels had relied on intimidation rather than an armed presence on the highways to keep Kathmandu cut off from the rest of the country.

Kathmandu had only a few weeks of fuel and food grains left as the blockade choked off supplies to the ancient city, set in a valley ringed by lush green hills. Vegetable prices had tripled or quadrupled with only limited supplies arriving. Some petrol stations had run dry.

"The Maoists claimed to be fighting for the impoverished, and it was the impoverished who were suffering the most in the blockade," said analyst Shyam Shreshta. Nepal's deputy prime minister, Bharat Mohan Adhikary, said he expected the rebels to resume peace talks soon in a first step to ending a conflict that neither side could win.

"We believe a peace dialogue will reopen in the near future," he said in an interview. "I say this on the basis of feelers, informal messages, communications from individuals who have met the Maoists. Peace is a must for them. Peace is a must for us."

The rebels have been fighting for eight years to oust the king and create communist rule in the world's only Hindu kingdom. Few had dared to defy the rebels despite the government's offer of helicopters and military trucks as escorts.

Since the blockade began, there has been only a trickle of traffic on the main road linking Kathmandu to the southern plains and the main trade route with India. Soldiers in full battle dress stood guard behind sandbags at the busiest checkpoint, Nagdhunga.

For 400 Nepali rupees ($5.50), driver Rajendra Nepali agreed to make a 150-km journey in a van to bring eggs to Kathmandu. An army truck escorted him. "You don't see Maoists or their sympathizers, but there is fear everywhere," he said as he drove into Kathmandu.

The impoverished country also faces a political crisis that has sapped it for two years, since King Gyanendra dissolved parliament and replaced then prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba with a loyalist appointee.

Gyanendra bowed to pressure, including sometimes violent protests, and re appointed Deuba in June, but opposition groups still want the parliament reconstituted. -Reuters