Human rights groups in Nepal have urged the government to start talks with Maoist rebels to end their four-year old armed sstruggle to overthrow the monarchy.

The appeal was made at a meeting in Kathmandu of human rights activists.

A former prime minister, Sher Bahadur Deuba, who chaired the meeting, called upon human rights groups to bring the rebels into negotiations; he pledged that the security forces would stop using force if the rebels gave up arms.

A BBC correspondent in Kathmandu says that although Maoist rebels have not rejected the offer of talks, they say the government call for a dialogue may simply be a propaganda exercise.

Eleven hundred people have been killed in the four years since the Maoists began their campaign.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service