KATMANDU, Nepal: U.N. officials are surveying areas in Nepal to establish camps where communist rebels will be confined and their weapons locked up under a landmark deal which will see them join an interim government, officials said Sunday.

The U.N. team and representatives from the government, Maoist rebels, police and army flew to the mountainous areas just northeast of the capital, Katmandu, on Sunday.

Maoist rebels signed an agreement with the government on Wednesday to join an interim government, lock up their weapons and place their fighters under United Nations supervision.

The survey trips that began on Saturday are the first step in implementing the agreement, said Tourism Minister Pradeep Gyawali, who was among those on the trip.

The team flew to Illam in an eastern mountainous area of Nepal on Saturday for the survey.

The agreement says thousands of rebel fighters and their weapons will be placed in seven camps scattered across the Himalayan nation, and kept under U.N. supervision.

Thousands of government troops and weapons also will be sequestered under watch by the U.N.

It is not known exactly how many fighters the rebels have. The government has around 90,000 soldiers.

The decade-old Maoist insurgency has killed more than 13,000 people.

The two sides reached a cease-fire and began peace talks in April, but negotiations stalled for months when the rebels refused to part with their weapons. The government insisted that they give up their arms before joining an interim government.