Newly elected Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and the new government will be installed only Wednesday, he said in a very brief conversation with Nepalnews.com over telephone Monday evening.

Deuba elected Sunday was huddled with party colleagues of the Nepali Congress the whole day Monday to assemble a new government after succeeding Girija Prasad Koirala who resigned Thursday.

Deuba is trying to assemble a government that will include disparate members of his fractionalized party to ensure its longevity, sources said. Deuba declined to take the oath of office before King Gyanendra Tuesday considered inauspicious in Hindu tradition.

Deuba in a second message to Maoists Monday said he had ordered security  forces to stop operations immediately against rebels to pave the way for  talks to end a communist insurgency that has claimed more than 1,800 lives in nearly six years.

Earlier Monday, the new Prime Minister asked Maoists to stop their attacks against police targets, end Nepal’s worst internal conflict, and come to the negotiating table.

Latest reports said 17 policemen were killed overnight and five were injured as 31 others survived in a rebel attack on a police outpost in Bajura district 480 ms northwest of the capital.

Deuba was unceremoniously dethroned four years ago as head of a coalition government as he tried to placate coalition members including  members of the right wing Rashtriya Prajatantra party (RPP). Members of his own party, and not the RPP pulled him down then, and his greatest challenge now is to move ahead with the total support of the majority party he now heads. nepalnews.com br July 23