A spokesperson of the US Department of State has said the US government looks forward to working with newly elected Nepal Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai.

Speaking during the daily press briefing at the Department of State on 29 August, spokesperson Victoria Nuland said, “First, we congratulate the people of Nepal on the election of the new prime minister. We look forward to working with Prime Minister Bhattarai and continuing the warm and constructive relationship that we’ve had with Nepal.”

Answering a question whether US was mulling any support for Nepal, if asked for, in formulating the new constitution, she said “We need to let the new prime minister take up his duties, and then we will see whether they need our support in that regard”.

She also hinted that there was no progress in removing the UCPN (Maoist) from the US government’s terrorist watch list.

Asked if the US government was going to remove the Maoist party from the watch list, she said, “I don’t have anything on that today." nepalnews.com