Kathmandu, Aug 8 : Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) parliamentary party deputy leader Dr Baburam Bhattarai has refuted media reports that claimed that he has clandestine links with some foreign power centres.

Nepalese media reports said that Dr. Bhattarai has close links with the Indian establishment more so, India’s intelligence agency RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) which was pressurising the Maoists paraphernalia to elevate Bhattarai as the Nepal’s Prime Minister in place of Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the Maoists’ party chief.

Kathmandu, Aug 8 : Top leaders of Nepal’s four major parties have failed to reach a consensus on government formation.

While the Maoists blamed the Nepali Congress for being reluctant to accept a Maoist-led Government, the Nepali Congress said they wanted to deal with all issues as a single package.

Senior Maoist leader Dr Baburam Bhattarai said: "Nepali Congress is still reluctant to accept our leadership."

Though the NC, the UML and the MPRF had agreed in principle to accept a Maoist leadership, NC leaders insisted that the Maoists must create an atmosphere for forming a government under its leadership.

Kathmandu - Nepalese police on Friday detained nearly 600 Tibetan exiles participating in anti-China protests in Kathmandu on the day the Beijing Olympic Games open.

Small groups of Tibetans gathered near the consular section of the Chinese embassy in central Kathmandu, defying a government ban on protests in the area.

Many Tibetans wearing "Free-Tibet" T-shirts and with their faces painted with Tibetan national flags chanted anti-China slogans.

Kathmandu, Aug 7 : Nepali Congress (NC) Vice President Ram Chandra Poudel met CPN-UML General Secretary Jahalanath Khanal today to meet the deadline given by President Dr. Ram Baram Yadav to form a consensual Government in Nepal.

During the meeting, the two leaders discussed that if the CPN-Maoist cannot form a government with Nepal national consensus, the NC and the UML will try to make a government without the Maoists.

Khanal said that if such condition comes, the new government must be led by the UML.

Kathmandu, Aug 7 : The four-party taskforce will meet today over the issues of power sharing and preparation of a Common Minimum Program (CMP) in Nepal.

On Wednesday, a meeting of the taskforce remained inconclusive as the Maoists and the Nepali Congress (NC) couldn''t reach consensus over implementation of past agreements.

During the meeting NC leaders expressed serious concern that the Maoists have failed to implement any of the past agreements, including those on returning confiscated property and dissolving the paramilitary structure of the Maoists youth wing, Young Communist League (YCL).

The NC leaders said the Maoists haven''t yet created a conducive atmosphere for a consensus Government.

Kathmandu, Aug 7 : CPN-Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias ''Prachanda'' has asked former UML General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal to head the Constitution Drafting Commission in Nepal.