The first meeting of the government talks team has decided to create conducive environment for talks with the Maoists.

The meeting of the committee held after the appointment of two more members on Thursday has decided to release all the political detainees and take back the charges against the Maoist detainees.

The meeting also decided to form a committee shortly with the mandate of publicizing the whereabouts of all people, who were disappeared by the state, within a month.

The Maoists have demanded release all political detainees and to make public the whereabouts of disappeared people to create conducive environment for talks.

Thursday’s meeting of the Council of Ministers appointed Pradip Gyawali, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and Ramesh Lekhak, Minister of State for Transport and Labour Management in the government negotiation team headed by Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitaula.

Talking to journalists after the meeting of the Council of Ministers, Home Minister Sitaula said that they would hold talks with the rebels at the earliest.

On the Maoist demand to release all political detainees as pre-condition for talks, Sitaula said the government had already started the process of releasing Maoist cadres. He informed that the government released 467 Maoist cadres so far.

The Maoists has also formed a three-member negotiation team headed by Maoist spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara to hold talks with the government. They have further informed that Chairman of the party, Prachanda, will come for the summit talks.