KING GYANENDRA of Nepal vowed last night to end his absolute rule and hand back “power to the people”, 14 months after he seized control, setting off protests that ended in weeks of violent confrontation.

But political leaders said that his promise fell short of their demands and that the protests would continue. “This is incomplete,” said Minendra Risal, of the Nepali Congress Democratic party, one of seven parties that have joined Maoist insurgents to protest against the King’s seizure of power. “The constitutional assembly is the aspiration of the people.”

Other political leaders have repeatedly demanded a new constitution that would reduce the King to a ceremonial figurehead or eliminate the monarchy altogether.

In a television address King Gyanendra said that he had an unflinching commitment towards constitutional monarchy and multiparty democracy. He called on the seven-party alliance to name a prime minister as soon as possible.

“Executive power shall, from this day, be returned to the people,” he said. Significantly, the monarch failed to mention the cause of the hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators, who have marched in the streets during the past two weeks. Instead, he praised the “bravery” of the security forces that battled to contain them.

The King’s address was an attempt to cap the rising anger and republican sentiment expressed by thousands of protesters, who were demanding that he relinquish the absolute power he took when he dismissed the Government in February last year.

Pro-democracy demonstrations by all sections of Nepalese society have filled the streets of the kingdom for the past 16 days, leading to clashes with security forces that have left at least 14 people dead and hundreds injured.

Throughout yesterday, the King faced growing international pressure to respond to the protesters’ demands. James Moriarty, the US Ambassador to Nepal, gave warning that the monarch could be forced from power within days.

“His time is running out,” Mr Moriarty said. “Ultimately the King will have to leave if he doesn’t compromise. And by ultimately, I mean sooner rather than later.”

The EU also condemned Nepalese authorities yesterday for opening fire on demonstrators to suppress pro-democracy protests, saying that it marked a watershed in the country’s political crisis.

More than 150,000 people poured on to the streets surrounding the Royal Palace in Kathmandu yesterday to defy for the second day a shoot-on-sight curfew designed to deter protesters from marching to the city centre. Carrying flags and chanting, groups of marchers linked hands and rushed towards the curfew line along the ring road to try to push back the security forces.

()The demonstrators raised the stakes by shouting slogans that went as far as wishing the King dead and accusing him of having had a hand in the massacre of his family in 2001. The crowd seemed more bent on ridiculing the King than on the restoration of democracy, which had been the focus of the previous days of protest. Comic cardboard effigies of the monarch were paraded through the streets and greeted with jeers and ironic ovations.

“We want the King to leave Nepal. We want a republic. First he should leave the throne and then we’ll decide what to do with him later,” Shankar Dahal, a 28-year-old computer maintenance engineer, said.

Mr Dahal said the crackdown on protesters had toughened their resolve. “It provoked us even more and brought us back to demonstrate today,” he said. “We are not afraid.”

In the suburb of Kalanki, where police had shot dead three demonstrators and wounded dozens of others on Thursday, marchers scrawled on the pavement: “Martyrs’ square — long live the martyrs.”

They waved the flags of opposition political parties and chanted: “Long live democracy. The blood of the martyrs will not go to waste.”

Hospitals across the capital began to fill with democracy campaigners injured by batons. The security forces, however, refrained from firing live rounds into the crowd yesterday.

Lying in his hospital bed in Chabahil, a suburb of the capital where thousands of protesters have gathered to defy the curfew, Sujan Nepali, a 21-year-old tailor in a T-shirt factory, said that democracy was worth his injuries. He was left unconscious after being struck across the head by police during demonstrations on Thursday.

“I’m not part of any political party,” Mr Nepali said. “I’m just an ordinary person. People are clear that we want a democracy without a king. We won’t compromise on that.”

NEPAL'S PROTESTS

The rebels have said that they may end their opposition if the Government allows free elections

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