New PM too ill for swearing-in

NEPAL - Girija Prasad Koirala was unable to attend his own swearing-in ceremony as Prime Minister of troubled Nepal yesterday morning because of bronchitis, relatives and officials said.

The decision to postpone his swearing-in means that Parliament, due to open in the afternoon for the first time in four years, might not be able to make substantive decisions.

Koirala's daughter Sujata said her father, 84, had bronchitis and was on antibiotics.

He had been also been given oxygen and a saline drip on Thursday, but his health was gradually improving.

"He is an old man, he is taking rest," she said outside his room. "The only problem is that it was too hectic a schedule and he is tired."

Sujata said the veteran politician would be sworn in later yesterday if he felt better.

Koirala's ill-health has got his fifth term as prime minister off to an inauspicious start.

On Thursday, he was too ill to attend a large rally in the capital Kathmandu to celebrate victory for the country's pro-democracy movement, sparking anger among many in the crowd. It will also undermine the eagerly awaited opening session of Parliament, which had been expected to move quickly to pave the way for elections for an assembly to write a new constitution for the kingdom.

"Parliament will sit but it will only be a formal sitting," said Krishna Prasad Situala, spokesman for Koirala's Nepali Congress party, the country's largest.

On Thursday, Maoist rebels declared a three-month unilateral ceasefire, and the Government is expected to move swiftly to match the truce once it takes office.

But the rebels have made it clear they were expecting Parliament to declare elections for the constituent assembly as soon as possible.

Earlier this week, Nepal's King Gyanendra backed down after weeks of often bloody street protests, agreeing to revive Parliament and hand over power to an alliance of seven political parties which led the protests.

The temporary truce by the rebels lifted a key burden on the new Government poised to take control after protests in which 15 people were killed by soldiers and police.

Although three previous rebel ceasefires have ended only in renewed war, the Maoists backed the campaign that ended Gyanendra's royal dictatorship, and political leaders were optimistic a lasting peace could be cemented.

The ceasefire "will help bring the Maoists to the negotiating table for peace talks that could end the violent conflict," said Gopalman Shrestha of the Nepali Congress Democratic Party.

After the Maoists announced their ceasefire, tens of thousands of political party supporters gathered for a previously planned rally in central Kathmandu. Waving party flags - such as the red and white stripes of the Nepali Congress and the hammer and sickle of the Communist Party of Nepal - crowds poured into a park, singing and chanting as they marched down Kathmandu's narrow lanes.

The rebel campaign has left nearly 13,000 dead in a decade.

Crushing the insurgents was one of the main reasons Gyanendra gave when he seized power in February 2005, dismissing an interim government.


An old warrior

Koirala has been in trouble with previous autocratic regimes in Nepal and was jailed for eight years in 1960 for his pro-democracy views.

Played a key role in ending the King Birendra's absolute power in the early 1990s.

Taking his fifth turn as Prime Minister - a position he has held on three occasions since the early 1990s.

His longest stint in the top job came 3 years ago.

His governments fell each time because of a combination of Congress Party in-fighting and the narrowness of his majorities in Parliament.

Koirala was reluctant to take the job again - he has complained that ill-health and old age make him an unsuitable candidate.

- AGENCIES