Kathmandu, January 17, 2007 A crucial meeting of the top leaders of the four major political parties today reached an understanding that power would be shared by the seven-party alliance, the CPN-Maoist and other fringe political parties based on their strength in the Legislative Parliament. According to today’s understanding, the Maoist would get the post of the deputy prime minister along with a powerful ministerial berth. There will be one deputy prime minister in the interim government, according to the Maoist source. A highly-placed Maoist source told this daily that they agreed on the principle of power-sharing based on the strength in the Legislative Parliament. Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, UML general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal, Maoist’s second-in-command Dr Baburam Bhattarai and NC-D president Sher Bahadur Deuba held a meeting this morning to arrive on the power-sharing formula. “The Prime Minister will be from NC, while Speaker and Deputy Speaker will be from the UML and NC-D, respectively. We will get the post of deputy prime minister along with a powerful ministerial berth,” said a Maoist leader, requesting anonymity. He said they agreed to give the Speaker’s and Deputy Speaker’s portfolio to the UML and the NC-D after they reached an understanding that the state power would be shared by major political parties. “We have agreed that three major parties — NC, CPN-UML and Maoists — will get three major portfolios according to their strength in the Legislative Parliament,” said the source. UN verifies 354 PLA fighters Chitwan/Nawalparasi, Jan 17, 2007 The United Nations’ Arms and Army Monitoring Team today verified 354 Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) personnel at the PL A’s No-3 Division at Shaktikhor in Chitwan. Spokesperson and secretary of the camp, Abiral, said 354 PLA soldiers were verified till 4:20 pm today. Twelve members of the UN team are involved in the job. He said the remaining PLA personnel would be verified in two phases tomorrow. The team took photographs of the PLA personnel and pasted stickers on their identity cards. Mediapersons were prevented from entering the camp to cover the event. Abiral said journalists would be provided with information after the completion of verification process every day. “An agreement has been reached to initiate arms management process only after completing PLA soldiers’ verification,” he said, adding no PLA personnel was found unqualified during the verification. There are 6,100 PLA soldiers in the main and subcamps in Chitwan. A report from Nawalparasi said a joint working team of the United Nations and the UNDP started arms management and verification of the PLA personnel at the Jhyaldanda-based Fourth Division Headquarters of the Maoists this afternoon.