KATHMANDU, Feb 7 -
Chairman of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) Prachanda alias Puspa Kamal Dahal
has said his party is ready to hold talks with the present government, if the
latter announces ceasefire with good intention of resolving the crisis.

Prachanda said this during an exclusive interview with Kantipur daily and its
sister publication The Kathmandu Post, taken in an undisclosed location and
published today.

He was flanked by the party's ideologue Dr Baburam Bhattarai, who also
supplemented his chairman here and there during the two-hour long interview.

The underground Supremo of the party that has been waging insurgency since
1996, which has already cost over 13000 lives, admitted his party's faults and
weaknesses and also offered an olive branch, though indirectly, to the
government for peace. However, he did not miss mentioning how his party's
movement has changed society positively and phenomenally.

Both Prachanda and Bhattarai said that there was an opportunity for resolving
the crisis if the king had shown magnanimity after February 1, 2005 takeover.

According to the Maoist leaders, the king should have said, "Okay I have come,
let's solve the problems together." However, he started saying, said the rebel
leaders "I won't give you the rights that you have enjoyed so far."

Throughout the interview, Prachanda tried to convince that the 12-point
understanding reached with political parties would be upheld by his party, and
that was the way to go about to bring lasting peace in the country.

He also said that his party would respect the result of the constituent
assembly, whatever it may be. "We will accept the verdict even if the people say
they want monarchy," he said. However, he expressed the belief this would not
happen.

Similarly, he also believes that given the international balance of power,
overall economic, political, and social realities, his party cannot attain
maximum goal of socialism and communism.

"We must accept this ground reality. We have said democratic republic and
constituent assembly, with the understanding that we should be flexible enough,
given the balance in class struggle and international situations," Prachanda
said.

Prachanda also announced that whenever it might be, but if his party comes to
power, top rung leaders like himself, Baburam, Badal, Mahara and Diwakar will
not exercise executive power, but will only remain as moral authority.