Kathmandu, Feb.1: The government Thursday matched this week’s Maoist offers for talks to end a communist insurgency that has claimed more than 1,500 lives in nearly six years by requesting the insurgents to come to the negotiating table.

” We request them to abandon violence and come to the negotiating table to end the conflict peacefully,” Deputy Home Minister Ram Chandra Paudel told the National News Agency before enplaning for a visit to rebel affected districts of west Nepal.

Paudel said the communist insurgency has destroyed development infrastructure in insurgency hit areas and created a reign of terror.

Maoist strongman Prachanda earlier this week asked the government to fulfil minimum conditions to end  hostilities while calling for a united front of all political forces to oust the government of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.

Several attempts to begin a dialogue between the government and rebels have failed. Government has mobilized the army and for the first time formed an armed police force to combat the communist insurgency aimed to establish a communist state in Nepal.