KATHMANDU, July 7: Dozens of supporters and opponents of Nepal's embattled King Gyanendra clashed on Saturday as the monarch threw open the palace gates to celebrate his 60th birthday, police said.

Police lined the street leading to the palace as supporters queued to enter the sprawling pink stone compound and meet their revered monarch.

“His majesty has made mistakes in the past but his mistakes are not inexcusable. We should maintain the monarchy because it's a symbol of national unity,” 27-year-old Ratna Magar said as he waited in line.

Nine people were injured as the two sides clashed in Durbar Square in the ancient heart of Kathmandu just south of the palace, police said. Two officers were among the injured.

“Royal supporters had gathered to attend the king's birthday when the Young Communist League activists attacked,” said police officer Surya KC, adding officers broke up the battles after about 20 minutes.

The palace press office said 15,000 people paid their respects to the king, but a reporter who watched visitors file said there were no more than 2,000.

It was a sharp contrast to the tens of thousands who used to offer the king birthday greetings before he seized direct control of Nepal in 2005 in what he said was a bid to defeat Maoist rebels waging a bloody “people's war.” On Saturday, musicians dressed in traditional costumes, playing drums and long horns, serenaded the monarch outside the palace, as children and orange-robed Hindu holy men waited in sweltering heat to enter.

Saturday's clashes came after the fiercely republican Young Communist League held a rally of around 1,000 members near the palace whose approach road was blocked off by police in a bid to avert trouble. “The king and his supporters are trying to become politically active again.

We won't tolerate this,” their leader Ganesh Man Pun told a cheering crowd. Earlier on Saturday around 200 pro-royalists staged a procession, shouting “long live King Gyanendra” and holding his portrait aloft.

They chanted slogans against the Maoists' fiercely republican leader Prachanda and called for preservation of the 238-year-old royal Shah dynasty.

“I've come to show my faith in the institution of the monarchy,” said Kirtinidhi Bista, a former royal-appointed politician. Gyanendra is revered by supporters as a reincarnation of Vishnu, the Hindu god of protection.

The king was forced to relinquish control in April last year following weeks of protests organised by the rebels and political parties.

His future as monarch has come under further threat since the former Maoist rebels and mainstream parties made peace after a decade-long civil war and formed a government this year.

Gyanendra plans a reception on Sunday as part of the weekend-long festivities. But in a snub, ambassadors from India, the United States, the European Union and elsewhere have said they will stay away.

The fate of the monarchy will be decided in crucial polls planned for November when Nepal will elect a body that will rewrite the constitution. Since he was forced to hand back control, the monarch has been stripped of most of his powers.

Gyanendra came to the throne in 2001 after an apparently drunk and drugged Crown Prince Dipendra killed most of his family, including the king, and then himself.—AFP