Kathmandu The deposed King Gyanendra of Nepal is eager to live as a common citizen, the Government said yesterday, after its first meeting with him since the monarchy was abolished last week.

While political parties squabbled over the key posts in the world’s newest republic, the former King appeared reconciled to the end of his family’s 239-year-old royal dynasty.

“I found him eager to live like a common citizen,” Krishna Prasad Sitaula, the Home Minister, told reporters after a 30-minute meeting, adding that he was expected to leave the palace within two weeks.

Political parties, including the Maoist former rebels who won a surprise victory in the April elections for a constituent assembly, are yet to agree on how to form a new government or elect a president.

The Maoists, who emerged as the biggest political party but lack a majority, want both the posts of prime minister and president. The centrist Nepalese Congress, the second-biggest group, says they are demanding too much. (Reuters)

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