Nepal’s prime minister was locked in last-ditch talks yesterday with other political leaders to prevent the Himalayan country sliding into fresh turmoil. Premier Jhalanath Khanal had threatened to step down unless there was progress in the nation’s peace process to draft a new constitution and integrate former Maoist rebels into the army. Aides to Khanal, from the Unified Marxist Leninist party, said the prime minister was still committed to carrying through with his threat but might delay his resignation until a new leader is found. “He is unwilling to push the country into a vacuum,” Surya Thapa, the prime minister’s press adviser, told AFP. “In the talks, the prime minister said his successor should form a national unity government. But that seems very unlikely given the mistrust among the parties,” he said. Neither the Maoists, who are part of the government, nor the centrist opposition Nepali Congress have made any concrete suggestions in the talks to push ahead the peace process, Thapa added. Khanal was elected by lawmakers in February after seven months of parliamentary deadlock that left Nepal without a leader. He heads a fragile coalition government of three parties, including the Maoists who comprise the largest party in parliament. Formed in 2008 after a decade of civil war between the government and Maoist insurgents, the current 601-member parliament, or Constituent Assembly, was given a two-year mandate to write a new constitution. But even after a one-year extension granted in 2010, the country’s bickering parties were unable to reach a consensus on the new charter — meant to pave the way for fresh elections and usher in a new social and political order. A further extension, granted at the end of May, is due to expire on August 31. The paralysis has fuelled public anger in what is one of the world’s poorest nations — all a far cry from the euphoria and optimism that followed the end of the civil war in 2006 and the abolition of the unpopular monarchy.