Kathmandu: The government led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has little time to decide on whether to accept the United Nations mediation efforts for arriving at a solution to the Maoists conflict.

So far, the government has been hinting that the country did not need the UN mediation and that if need be it would seek the UN support in this regard.

But then the fact is that a good number of civil society organizations including a host of political parties have favored the UN mediation in one form or the other to sort out the Maoists issue for good.

To the extent that the UN’s role is now being favored by Koirala and Madhav’s party is already on record to have even incorporated the UN possible role in its long drawn nine-point roadmap.

However, the government is providing little attention to those political overtures that favor UN role in Nepali issue.

Be that as it may, the Secretary General of the UN system, Kofi Annan, is shortly sending his top emissary, fortunately a Nepali citizen indeed, Mr. Kul Chandra Gautam to take stock of the Nepal situation vis-à-vis the Maoists-Government conflict.

It is widely believed that Mr. Gautam will explain the role that the UN would like to play in Nepali affairs at a program to be organized by Nepal Council of World Affairs.

Koirala says that the UN has a role to play but should limit its role to that of an observer. The UML prefers the UN role but has yet to spell out what sort of role it would like to provide the UN at time of the talks?

The RPP and the NSP apparently hint that UN role was not needed at least for the moment.

The Maoists are candid in demanding UN’s role at time of the talks and forward the reason that since they don’t trust the government and hence the need of an international guarantor.

The international community based in Kathmandu too is divided on this issue. While the US will prefer the talks to proceed without UN assistance, the Europeans would prefer the UN role for so many good reasons. UN or no UN is perhaps one factor that also has widened the rift in between the US and the members of the EU in Kathmandu.

The UN has time and again stated that it might attend to the talks provided both the parties in conflict exhibit their common preference.

In this scenario, analysts hope that until Mr. Gautam clarifies the UN position and the kind of the role she wants to play, things will continue under intense debate.