KATHMANDU, July 4: Nepal's communists on Sunday formally joined the government of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba after last week agreeing to a common agenda to seek peace with Maoist rebels and fully restore democracy.

The Communist Party-United Marxist and Leninist (NCP-UML) said in a statement it had submitted a list to Deuba of 10 members, headed by politburo member Bharat Mohan Adhikari, for nomination to his government.

The prime minister, who was reappointed June 2 by King Gyanendra, is expected on Monday to announce his expanded cabinet, which will also comprise members from two smaller parties, the rightist National Democratic Party and the pro-India Nepal Sadbhawana Party (NSP).

"I confirm the nomination of 10 members of our party for the ministerial assignment under my leadership," Adhikari said. Deuba had been unable to bring parties into his new cabinet until he said on June 18 that the king, who had fired the elected leadership in 2002 and handpicked a government, had invested him with full powers.

The three parties agreed to join after reaching agreement with Deuba on a common programme which calls for new talks with Maoist rebels to end the eight-year civil war, which has claimed more than 9,500 lives.

The common platform also said the parties believed in the principles of a 1990 street protest movement that persuaded then-king Birendra to allow an elected parliament.

"The parties agreed to work jointly to restore the full sovereign and democratic rights enshrined by the 1990 movement," it said. The Himalayan kingdom's largest party, the Nepali Congress, has refused to join the government.

Two previous bids to end the insurgency collapsed over Maoist demands for a special assembly to redraft the constitution. The rebels want to turn the Hindu kingdom into a secular, communist republic. -AFP