Nepal's former rebels on Sunday agreed to rejoin the government after striking a deal with political parties ending the ongoing peace process deadlock in the Himalayan nation, a senior minister said.
"The Maoists have agreed to rejoin the government as we (the political parties) reached a 23-point agreement on major political issues today," Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat, who attended the meeting with former rebels, told AFP.
The ultra-leftists, who ended a decade-long insurgency late last year, stormed out of an interim government in September, complaining they were not being given equal representation in the peace process.
Under the new deal the government has also agreed to declare the country a republic.
"The country will be declared a federal democratic republic in an interim constitution but we will implement the decision only after the constituent assembly elections," said Mahat, who belongs to the Nepali Congress, the largest party in the current administration.