Nepal's interim prime minister steps down

Nepal's interim premier and architect of the country's peace process announced his resignation Thursday in a move that paves the way for a new government following the abolition of the monarchy. The prime minister, whose Nepali Congress party was soundly defeated by the Maoists in the polls for the 601-member assembly, called on the ultra-leftists to form the next government.

The resignation resolves a political stalemate that followed the abolition of the monarchy on May 28.

"I declare I have given up the prime minister's post through this assembly today," Girija Prasad Koirala, who is 83 and in failing health, told the recently elected constitutional assembly.

"With me or without me, we all need to maintain the culture of consensus," he said.

"I appeal to them (the Maoists) to garner consensus for the formation of a new government under their leadership," Koirala also said in a statement read out by Ram Chandra Poudel, Nepal's peace minister.

The Maoists and Congress -- Nepal's two main parties -- have been arguing for weeks over who will become the first president of a republican Nepal.

On Wednesday, they reached a deal that the president and prime minister would be elected through the assembly that will draft Nepal's new constitution.

"Now we all must focus on drafting a new constitution by giving up our petty political differences and ending confusion," Poudel said.