Nepal's Maoist rebel chief Prachanda said on Saturday he and his deputy would not join a new interim government that will include the insurgents as he planned to campaign for elections due next year.
The rebels and the multi-party government of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala are expected to sign a landmark peace deal on Tuesday which would pave the way for the Maoist army to disarm and the preparation of a new constitution.
Under a timetable drawn by the two sides, the rebels are expected to join a new interim government by December 1
"We have decided that we will not be a part of the interim government, mainly myself, Comrade Baburam Bhattarai and Comrade Badal," he said, referring to his number two Bhattarai and another senior Maoist leader.
"But it has not been decided that we will not contest in the elections," he told a news conference on the sidelines of a leadership summit in the Indian capital.
The polls will elect an assembly to draft the new constitution and decide the future of the monarchy, an institution the rebels have been fighting for a decade.
Prachanda said he doesn't want to be president of a Nepali republic but if the people of his party and Nepal insisted then he would not refuse the responsibility.
The rebel leader, who is making his first high-profile public visit to giant neighbour India, said the interim government would include other Maoist leaders while he and Bhattarai would travel across the Himalayan country to "mobilise the masses".
"For the core leadership to join the government is secondary. To mobilise the masses for the elections of the constituent assembly is principle," said Prachanda. "We think that it will be more beneficial for the political aim."
Koirala's government and the rebels were due to sign the peace deal earlier this week but it was delayed due to what Prachanda said were technical problems which were now being sorted out to allow the signing on Tuesday.
The new assembly and a new constitution fulfil key demands of the Maoists -- who launched their revolt in 1996 and in which more than 13,000 people have died so far.
In the run-up to the constituent assembly vote, Maoist fighters will be confined to camps with their weapons locked in containers under UN supervision, while the state army will also be confined to barracks.
On Thursday, Prachanda told Reuters in an interview that the rebels -- who are observing a truce -- believed in the peaceful transformation of their poor Himalayan nation, but will not rule out a return to armed struggle.
Maoists could not remain in government if the monarchy was retained, he said, but would try to persuade people they had made a mistake.
The comments drew swift condemnation from the United States, which said the Maoists would remain a terrorist organisation until they gave up their guns and ended violence.