The vote for a body to rewrite Nepal's constitution had been set for June 20, but Nepal's top election official has repeatedly said more time was needed to prepare.

"We have agreed to hold the constituent assembly elections by the end of November and the eight party leaders have given the responsibility to the government to fix the (exact) date," minister for peace and reconstruction Ramchandra Poudel told AFP.

"The prime minister has proposed November 26 as election day, but it has not been approved by the leaders of the eight parties," said CP Mainali, leader of the United Left Front party.

Nepal's former rebel Maoists ended their decade-long civil war late last year and have been given five ministerial portfolios in the new government.

The elections will decide the future of Nepal's embattled monarch King Gyanendra, who has been stripped of most of his powers after being forced to end a much-criticised 14-month period of authoritarian rule last April.

The fiercely anti-monarchy Maoists want the interim government to declare a republic before the polls and while agreeing to a November ballot added a note of dissent.

"Our party thinks that we will not be able to hold the elections without declaring a republic through parliament so we have sent a note of dissent on the election date agreement to the other party leaders," said Dinanath Sharma, a senior Maoist leader.

Nepal's parliament, formed in January, needs to amend the interim constitution in the next two weeks, said peace minister Poudel.

"We have also agreed to amend the interim constitution and formulate the necessary election laws by mid-June," he said.

Nepal's chief election official hailed the announcement of November polls.

"We welcome this agreement and now this political decision should be backed up swiftly to make sure we can hold the election in November," election commissioner Bhojraj Pokharel told AFP.

The commission has recently finished updating Nepal's electoral register, and around 17.6 million of the 27 million population are now registered to vote, Pokharel said.

However, the eight-party government that includes the Maoists also face law and order problems in Nepal, where at least 65 people have been killed in ethnic unrest in the south since January.

"The government also needs to improve peace and security in order to create a stable environment to hold the polls," the election chief said.

Some 9,700 polling centres would be set up across the country, he added.

At least 13,000 people were killed during the Maoist insurrection launched in western Nepal in 1996.

As part of a landmark peace deal reached late in 2006, the ultra-leftists have placed their weapons and troops in camps under United Nations supervision.