KATHMANDU, May 20: Nepal's king met the main opposition leader on Thursday in another of a series of meetings aimed at trying to end a political impasse marked by massive anti-monarchy protests and calls for democracy.

Communist party leader Madhav Kumar Nepal, whom the opposition has named as their candidate for prime minister, said he told King Gyanendra that an all-party government had to be formed to end the stalemate.

"I told the king to nominate a prime minister recommended (by the opposition), and form an all-party government to bring the Maoists to mainstream politics to end the conflict in the country as soon as possible," Nepal told reporters.

King Gyanendra fired the elected government in October 2002 accusing it of failure to govern Nepal and to end a bloody Maoist insurgency launched in 1996. His handpicked prime minister, staunch royalist Surya Bahadur Thapa, resigned May 7 after more than a month of demonstrations against the king.

King Gyanendra on Wednesday met other opposition leaders behind more than a month of noisy protests against the monarchy, although no immediate breakthrough was reached. Nepal said the monarch was serious about ending the impasse.

"The king is in no mood to prolong the ongoing political deadlock," he said. Nepal's meeting at the palace came on the last day of a three-day strike called by the Maoists in which at least 45 people were killed and millions of dollars were lost in revenue, according to officials and industrialists.

The Maoists, fighting to overthrow the monarchy, ordered all shops shut and all traffic off the roads across the Himalayan state of 25 million people. They called the strike in part to show solidarity with opposition parties. More than 9,500 people have died in the eight-year Maoist insurgency. -AFP