Nepal says its army had gunned down 28 Maoist rebels in separate gunbattles across the kingdom as King Gyanendra began a six-day state visit to neighbouring India.
A Defence Ministry statement said soldiers had shot dead 11 Maoist guerrillas yesterday in Banke district, 310 miles west of Kathmandu and recovered a large amount of arms and ammunition.
It said another six rebels were killed in Okhaldhunga in eastern Nepal. The rest died in separate battles elsewhere in the kingdom.
Yesterday the ministry announced its troops had killed 59 rebels in the preceding two days.
Rebel casualties cannot be independently verified and guerrillas normally do not comment on battles.
Officials said the Nepali monarch, who inherited the throne after last year's palace massacre in which popular King Birendra was killed, would seek to consolidate traditional ties with India during his visit.
He would also discuss ways to tackle the Maoist insurgency, which aims to create a communist republic.
This is King Gyanendra's first foreign trip as reigning monarch. He is due to visit China next month.
India is a key economic and trade partner of the mountainous nation and has provided arms, ammunition, trucks and helicopters for the Nepali army to fight the rebels.
Nepal mobilised its army under emergency rule last November when the rebels walked out of peace talks and began attacking military camps. More than 4,700 people have been killed since the fighting began in 1996.