Nepalese Home Minister Govinda Raj Joshi has said he is confident that an agreement will soon be made with Bhutan to repatriate 100,000 refugees who are currently living in camps in the east of Nepal.

Mr Joshi was speaking after a three day official visit to Bhutan to discuss the plight of the refugees, who eight years ago began coming to Nepal from Bhutan.

The latest negotiations were the first time in three years that the two sides had held talks at ministerial level.

Throughout the 1990s Nepal and Bhutan have been in dispute over the nationality of the refugees.

Nepal says the majority are Bhutanese and should be allowed to return home. But Bhutan says over two-thirds of the refugees are Nepalese, and has refused to take them back.

Ethnic and cultural divisions

The disagreement between the two countries in some ways reflects ethnic and cultural divisions in Bhutan.

The northern part of Bhutan is mostly inhabited by Drukpas, who are Buddhists. They occupy most senior positions in government and the civil service.

The King of Bhutan, the absolute monarch Jigme Singhe Wanchouk, belongs to this group.

The southern part of Bhutan has traditionally been inhabited by Nepali speaking Hindu immigrants from Nepal who have been coming into the country since the end of the last century. In general they have retained their Nepalese culture and traditions, which starkly differ from those of the Drukpas.

Up until the mid-1980s there had been little or no conflict between the Drukpas and the Nepalese migrants. But around this time the campaign for democracy in the kingdom gathered pace.

The authorities blamed much of the unrest on the Nepali speaking minority, and introduced strict legislation which required them to adopt Drukpa culture. Some were classified as illegal immigrants.

The Nepalese community opposed these laws and organised demonstrations calling for their repeal. They say these protests were harshly dealt with by the government, who they say forced them to leave the country.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Since the early 1990s, more than 100,000 refugees have made their way into south-eastern Nepal through India. They live in several refugee camps under the supervision of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.

Most commentators agree that the plight of the refugees cannot be solved without the intervention of India, one of the few countries that has any influence over Bhutan. Yet Delhi has in the past shown a marked reluctance to become involved in the dispute.

There have been eight rounds of talks between Nepal and Bhutan over the refugee question but none has been successful.