KATHMANDU (AFP) -- Crucial elections to decide Nepal's future were postponed indefinitely on Friday after the government and Maoists failed to agree on the fate of the monarchy and the election system, officials said.

""The seven party leaders (of the coalition government) have agreed to postpone the constituent assembly elections for an indefinite period,"" Peace and Reconstruction Minister Ram Chanda Poudel told AFP.
The polls scheduled for November 22 were a key element of a peace deal sealed last year that ended a civil war launched by the Maoists in 1996.
Voters were to elect a body to rewrite Nepal's constitution and decide the fate of the Himalayan country's embattled monarchy.
""A date for a special session of the country's interim parliament will be announced Friday to address the Maoist demands for a fully proportional election system and the fate of the monarchy,"" Poudel said.
The fiercely republican Maoists have been pushing hard for the immediate abolition of the monarchy as well as a change in the election system.
After agreeing to polls with a mixed first-past-the-post and proportional representation system, the ex-rebels demanded full proportional voting.
They vowed to disrupt the November ballot if mainstream parties refused their demands.
Analysts say that the ultra-leftists have become fearful of the elections as their support has plummeted because of their continued strong-arm tactics and bloody unrest in the southern Terai region.