Nepal and Bhutan begin refugee talks

The Himalayan kingdoms of Nepal and Bhutan have begun new talks to try to settle the decade-old refugee problem that has soured relations between them.

The foreign minister of Nepal, Chakra Prasad Bastola, is in Thimpu discussing with his Bhutanese counterpart, Jigme Thinley, how to organise the return of Nepali-speaking refugees who fled Bhutan ten years ago.

More than ninety-thousand people still live in camps in eastern Nepal -- Bhutan says only a few thousand of them are really Bhutanese nationals.

Bhutanese officials say the method of classifying the refugees will be the central issue in the talks to establish who can validly enter Bhutan. The talks come a few weeks after the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, at the end of a visit to both countries, said she was optimistic there would soon be an end to the refugee problem.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service