The "summit talks" between top leaders of the ruling Seven Parties Alliance (SPA) government and guerillas started here in Kathmandu on Sunday morning at the Prime Minister's official residence in Baluwatar, a local TV station reported.

The meeting, to resolve their differences over interim stature, interim legislature and arms management, future of the king and to fix a date for constituent assembly elections, is likely to go on for a few day until all issues are resolved, Nepal One, one of the leading private TV stations reported.

A day before the summit talks, leaders of both the government and the guerillas had held an informal discussion on some of the major issues. In the discussion, the two sides had discussed issues like interim constitution, constituent assembly, future of the king, and arms management. 

The Communist Party Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal expressed optimism that Sunday's summit talks will come out fruitful.

"The party has put its utmost efforts in making the dialogue a success," Nepal told journalists here on Saturday.

The summit talks will focus mainly on arms management, setting the date for elections to the Constituent Assembly, interim constitution and referendum on the future of monarchy, he said.

A member of the guerrilla talks team, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, also said on the same occasion that he believed the summit talks will be conclusive.

He said the guerrillas were engaged in informal discussions in order to make the talks result-oriented.

(Xinhua News Agency October 8, 2006)