The drama-packed week began with King Gyanendra announcing close to midnight Monday that he was conceding to the demand of the opposition parties and reviving the lower house of parliament, dissolved since May 2002.

While the opposition welcomed the gesture and announced Nepali Congress party leader Girija Prasad Koirala would be the new prime minister, the Maoists struck a discordant note.

The rebels called the house reinstatement a conspiracy by the king to stave off the demand for a republic and announced they would begin a blockade of Kathmandu valley and the key neighbouring towns from Tuesday to pressure the new government into calling a constituent assembly election.

Koirala and the seven parties reacted quickly, avowing their commitment to hold the election that would leave it to the people to decide if Nepal would remain a monarchy or become a republic.

The octogenarian leader issued a public appeal to the Maoists Wednesday, saying a constituent assembly election would be the main agenda of the new session of parliament starting from Friday.

"We are hopeful the Maoists would call off their protest from today," Nepali Congress spokesman Krishna Sitaula said.

Madhav Kumar Nepal, chief of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist, said the opposition alliance remained committed to its pact with the Maoists and would focus on constituent assembly elections in parliament.

Bending a little, Maoist supremo Prachanda Wednesday agreed to put off the blockade till Friday.

"Since 1950, history has shown that once public pressure is lessened (on the king for a constituent assembly), dangerous situations occur," the underground leader said in his statement Wednesday. "Out of deference to Koirala, we are calling off our blockade."

However, he warned that it would be imposed if the parliament session on Friday did not have any positive development on holding unconditional constituent assembly elections.

He also warned that his banned party would continue other measures, including taking action against those who had tried to repress the anti-king protests.

The temporary respite comes after reports of the blockade affecting transport on highways Wednesday.

In the farwest, south and east, rebels had blocked highways with boulders and trees, bringing transport to a halt. They had also burnt some vehicles, media reports said.

On Tuesday, the UN World Food programme sent an appeal, saying the closure and curfew had prevented it from delivering critically needed food aid to communities around the country, including over half a million school children and more than 100,000 Bhutanese refugees.

"Children have not been fed in schools, mothers and pregnant women have not received nutritional support... We hope that yesterday's political developments will allow us to quickly resume food deliveries and distributions," said Anthony Banbury, WFP Regional Director for Asia.