UNITED NATIONS: UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday welcomed the weekend decision by Nepal's Maoist former rebels to rejoin their country's interim government.

Ban "welcomes the decision by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) to rejoin the interim government," his press office said in a statement.

It added that the secretary general learned with satisfaction that the seven-party alliance had reached an agreement on key issues of the peace process.

The secretary general urged "all parties to swiftly move forward in the implementation of the agreements reached and lay the ground for a peaceful, inclusive, and credible Constituent Assembly election" scheduled for next April.

The polls were postponed twice due to Maoist demands that the electoral system be reformed.

On Sunday, the Maoists agreed to rejoin the government in a deal to end the country's long-running peace deadlock.

The ultra-leftists, who ended a decade-long insurgency late last year, stormed out of an interim government in September, complaining they were not being given equal representation in the peace process.

The new deal will see the government agree to abolish the monarchy and declare the country a republic -- a key Maoist demand to ensure free and fair elections that would shape the country's political future