Kathmandu, May 13 : Former Prime Minister and Nepali Congress (NC) leader Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and Home Minister of the royal cabinet and chairman of the Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal Kamal Thapa has asked the parties not to abolish the institution of monarchy until a new constitution is promulgated.

During the hour-long meeting with CPN-Maoist Chairman Prachanda, Bhattarai said abolition of monarchy could plunge the country further into grave crisis.

"The institution of monarchy can still play a role to unify nation's culture and geographical diversity of the nation," Bhattarai added.

Bhattarai further said that since no party has an absolute majority in the Constituent Assembly (CA), only politics of consensus can bail Nepal out of the current crisis.

Thapa also claimed the CA should not take a decision to abolish monarchy in haste which can then invite political disaster

Thapa said that the King Gyanendra wanted the Maoist leadership to uphold the April 11, 2006 agreement between royal palace and the political parties, which effectively ended King Gyanendra's royal regime and led to the formation of the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) government.

Although the details of the secretive agreement between the king and the political parties held on the mediation of Indian special envoy Karan Singh, who is himself the erstwhile Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir has not been made public, Thapa said that both parties had agreed to end only "dictatorial monarchy" but not the entire institution of monarchy, Nepalnews reported.