Coordinator of the government talks team and Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula held meeting with the chief of the Maoist talks team Krishna Bahadur Mahara on Thursday and discussed the upcoming summit level talks.

“We discussed the possibility of holding the summit but did not set any schedule,” reports quoted Sitaula as saying.

Dev Gurung, a member of the Maoist talks team, said Sitaula had briefed Mahara about the cabinet decision and both had discussed the contents of the summit talks.

Gurung said his party was always ready to hold the summit meet, but it was the government, which was delaying it.

The Maoists have been insisting that the meet reach a consensus on an interim statute, an interim legislature, an interim government and arms management.

Wednesday’s meeting of the Council of Ministers has directed the government talks team to finalize the dates for the summit level talks between the top leaders of the seven political parties and the Maoists and to finalize agendas for the summit level talks.

According to members of the government’s talks team, the summit level talks will be held with the rebels after top leaders of Nepali Congress (NC), CPN-UML and NC (Democratic) returns from Korea.

There has been suspicion over the summit level talks with the government and the Maoists blaming each other for the delay in peace talks.