KATHMANDU (AFP) – Nepal's three main parties held talks on Sunday to try to hammer out a new coalition government after the prime minister agreed to resign to avert a political crisis.

Madhav Kumar Nepal said he would step down in a last-minute deal to secure support of Maoist lawmakers for a bill to extend parliament's term, which was due to expire Friday, leaving the country without a functioning legislature.
The opposition Maoists won 2008 elections, but their government fell last year in a disagreement over the integration of their former fighters into the national army, and they have been agitating for a return to power ever since.
As the largest party in parliament the Maoists are likely to take a lead role in the next power-sharing government, but the prime minister's office said that many issues needed to be addressed first.
The Maoists fought a decade-long civil war against the state before agreeing to lay down their arms in a 2006 peace agreement. However four years later, many of the terms of that deal remain unfulfilled.