King will speak soon: Karan Singh

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Kathmandu:King Gyanendra of Nepal will soon make an announcement to defuse the crisis in the country, said Indian Prime Minister's special representative Karan Singh on Thursday.

The ball is in the king's court now, Singh said in Delhi after returning from Kathmandu. Singh conveyed to the king India's deep concern over the situation and gave him a letter from the Indian PM.

"My meeting with the king was positive," he said, adding people in Nepal are facing economic and political difficulties.

At least three people were repored killed and 16 others were injured when Nepali Police opened fire from choppers at nearly four lakh protestors gathered near Kathmandu.

There are reports that clashes have taken place in Kathmandu's twin city Keertipur and neighbouring districts of Bhaktapur and Kalanki.

The clashes came just hours after Indian diplomats met with King Gyanendra in an effort to defuse the civil unrest in the Nepalese capital.

King offers PM post, spurned

Amid mounting civic unrest and protestors defying curfew, King Gyanendra offered the post of Prime Minister to Nepali Congress leader K P Bhattarai.

However, Bhattarai, a former prime minister of Nepal, turned the offer down.

Meanwhile, thousands of protestors defied the shoot-at-sight order and marched towards the Narayanhiti palace, state broadcaster Radio Nepal reported.

There were also reports of clashes in Kathmandu's twin city Keertipur and neighbouring districts of Bhaktapur and Kalanki.

Soldiers and police patrolled the streets of Nepal's capital Thursday to enforce an 18-hour curfew imposed to keep anti-king protesters off the streets, a day after security forces shot dead four pro-democracy demonstrators in the country's east.

District administration officers said the 2 am-8 pm curfew was necessary to prevent opposition parties from staging a huge rally, planned for Thursday, to demand that King Gyanendra loosen his grip on power.

Security forces have orders to shoot curfew violators on sight. Diplomats, journalists and human rights monitors have not been issued passes allowing them onto the streets as they have in the past.

Opposition leaders were meeting Thursday at an undisclosed location to decide if the rally should go ahead despite the inevitable risks attached to breaking the curfew. There were no reports of clashes or protests in Katmandu early Thursday, as hundreds of troops patrolled the capital's deserted streets.

The ring road that circles Kathmandu, which has been the venue of recent past protests to evade the regulation banning demonstrations in the city proper, was also deserted in the morning.

Two weeks of often-violent protests and a general strike against palace rule have paralysed Nepal, leaving cities short of food and fuel and the Himalayan country at its most volatile since King Gyanendra seized power 14 months ago.