KATHMANDU: Major three political parties on Sunday agreed to use existing divisions of areas (ilakas) and their numbers as bases for local body restructuring.

It means that there would be around 900 local bodies in the purported federal structure.

In a meeting called by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the top leaders of Nepali Congress, CPN-UML and CPN Maoist Centre agreed that the restructured local bodies should not be much different from existing divisions of sub-district structures and their numbers.

Accordingly, they have decided to request the Local Body Restructuring Commission to move ahead in the same line, PM's Secretariat quoted the PM's chief political advisor Chakrapani Khanal, who was also present, as saying after the meeting.

"Now, the government will provide further instructions to the Commission according to the consensus among parties," he told reporters, as mentioned in the PM's Secretariat.

PM and CPN MC Chairman Dahal, Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba and UML senior leader Madhav Kumar Nepal among others were present on the occasion.