Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has directed the government talks team to concentrate on the core agenda during the talks with the Maoists.

The talks team were given such directions during a meeting with PM Koirala on Wednesday morning at the PM’s residence in Baluwatar. A member of the government talks team quoted Koirala as saying the talks would be successful as it was going ahead positively. The discussion was held for half an hour.

The talks team had sought suggestions from the prime minister regarding the issues for next talks between the government and the Maoists and UN monitoring team’s arrival here today.

Radio reports said that the government negotiation team is to meet Nepali Congress (Democratic) President Sher Bahadur Deuba later today. The team had held similar discussion with UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal on Monday.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Maoists and the government negotiation teams held a brief meeting to discuss the agenda for the next formal meeting and preparations for summit talks.