By MATTHEW ROSENBERG
The Associated Press
Friday, April 28, 2006; 1:43 AM
KATMANDU, Nepal -- The king named an ailing 84-year-old politician as Nepal's prime minister Thursday, hours after communist insurgents announced a temporary cease-fire to give the new government much-needed breathing room.
Girija Prasad Koirala was the choice for prime minister by the alliance of political parties behind weeks of bloody protests that forced King Gyanendra to restore democracy in this Himalayan nation. But his illness could keep him from the first session of the reinstated Parliament on Friday.
Koirala, who is taking his fifth turn as prime minister, was to have been sworn in Friday morning, but an unspecified lung problem forced the postponement of the ceremony to later in the day, said his spokesman, Gokarna Poudyal.
Koirala's illness kept him away from a victory rally Thursday in Katmandu, marring a day that began with the Maoist rebels announcing a three-month cease-fire.
The temporary truce lifted a key burden on the new government poised to take control after protests in which 15 people were killed by soldiers and police.
Although three previous rebel cease-fires have ended only in renewed war, the Maoists backed the campaign that ended Gyanendra's royal dictatorship, and political leaders were optimistic a lasting peace could be cemented.
The cease-fire "will help bring the Maoists to the negotiating table for peace talks that could end the violent conflict," said Gopalman Shrestha of the Nepali Congress Democratic Party.
However, the Maoists were clear that the cease-fire is only for three months and intended to encourage the political parties to announce a special assembly to rewrite Nepal's constitution, which enshrines the monarchy as the key arbiter of power in the country.
The writing of a new constitution that could limit _ or even eliminate _ the monarchy's role is a key demand of the Maoists, who initially rejected Gyanendra's offer Monday to reinstate Parliament, dissolved in 2002, as a ruse to keep his crown.
However, they soon softened their position, calling off a blockade of cities Wednesday and announcing the cease-fire Thursday.
The moves clearly reflected a willingness by the rebels to give politicians a chance to set up a constitutional convention.
They also appear to believe the new government will give them a chance to play a legitimate public role _ the outlawed Maoist student wing, the All Nepal National Free Student's Union (Revolutionary), even announced a rally Friday in the heart of Katmandu.
The rebel campaign has left nearly 13,000 dead in a decade, and crushing the insurgents was one of the top reasons Gyanendra gave when he seized power in February 2005, dismissing an interim government.
After the Maoists announced their cease-fire, tens of thousands of political party supporters gathered for a previously planned rally in central Katmandu.
Waving party flags _ such as the red and white stripes of the Nepali Congress and the hammer and sickle of the Communist Party of Nepal _ crowds poured into a park, singing and chanting as they marched down Katmandu's narrow lanes.
The rally began on an angry note, however, with the crowd throwing rocks, plastic bottles and sticks at politicians after hearing Koirala was too ill to address them.
But the politicians quickly calmed the crowd, assuring them Koirala was genuinely unwell.
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Associated Press writer Binaj Gurubacharya contributed to this report.