Pushpa Kamal Dahal, ex-Maoist rebel leader, will head the new government until 2025 as part of an agreement reached with the opposition communist Unified Marxist-Leninist (UML) party and other smaller groups.

Dahal, better known by his nom de guerre Prachanda or "the fierce one", has been appointed prime minister for a third time, in alliance with the main opposition after last month’s election returned a hung parliament.

“The decision to strengthen the Office of the prime minister and the Council of ministers has been signed to enhance the effectiveness in the work of building good governance, service flows, and development,” Dahal wrote on Facebook.

Dahal was the leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) during the country's civil war and subsequent peace process and the 1st Nepalese constituent assembly.

In the 2008 elections, CPN(M) emerged as the largest party, and Dahal became Prime Minister in August of that year.

He resigned from the post on 4 May 2009, after his attempt to sack the then army chief, General Rookmangud Katawal, was opposed by then President Ram Baran Yadav.

In August 2016 Pushpa Kamal Dahal was elected for a second stint as Prime Minister of Nepal. Prachanda became the 24th prime minister since Nepal's adoption of multi-party democracy in 1990 and the eighth since the abolition of the monarchy in 2008.

He resigned from the post of Prime Minister on 24 May 2017 and was succeeded by Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress in June. (ILKHA)