India's Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said yesterday he was concerned the situation in neighbouring Nepal could "go out of hand" because the Nepalese army's efforts to crush a Maoist rebellion are proving ineffective.

"The Royal Nepal Army is trying to contain the Maoists," Mukherjee was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India news agency.

"But its efforts are not effective. We hope it successfully tackles them, otherwise, the situation will go out of hand," Mukherjee told reporters in the eastern city of Kolkata.

"We are trying to impress upon (the Nepalese) government to tackle the Maoists. But, unfortunately, certain recent developments in that country like the suppression of its constitution and the multi-party system had set back anti-Maoist

initiatives," he said.

Mukherjee was referring to the seizure of power and suppression of civil liberties by Nepal's King Gyanendra after he dismissed a civilian government on February 1.

Gyanendra justified the power grab by citing the government's ineffective handling of the Maoist rebellion, which has cost some 12,000 lives since it began nine years ago.

India has strongly criticised the king and suspended military hardware supplies to Nepal.

Last month, however, New Delhi sent its first shipment of "non-lethal" army equipment across the border, according to news reports.

Mukherjee said the Nepalese Maoists had close links with many leftist rebel groups in India.

"Many of them have the fancy idea of setting up a liberated corridor starting right from the Terai region and going through parts of West

Bengal, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Karnataka and Maharashtra," Mukherjee said referring to a long east-west swathe of Indian territory bordering India's frontier with the Himalayan kingdom.

Meanwhile, Nepal's Maoists rebels have abducted another 223 civilians, including women and students, from three western districts to bring to 254 the number of people kidnapped in the past week, the army said Sunday.

"The Maoist terrorists abducted over 150 women from four villages in Bajura district and 70 civilians from several places in Achham district on July 31," an army statement said, reporting the abductions for the first time.

It added that three youths planning to head for the Middle East to seek jobs were kidnapped by rebels in the far-western Khungri area of Rolpa district on Saturday.

Police earlier reported that the

Maoists had kidnapped nine junior civil servants including a forestry official and 22 students in two southwestern districts on August 2.

The rebels often round up students or officials and subject them to "reorientation" programmes, during which they try to recruit young people to their "people's army", before releasing them.

Two policemen who were guarding the Damak market centre in Jhapa in far southeastern Nepal were shot and wounded by rebels on Saturday, police said.

Their conditions are critical.

The rebels have been fighting for a communist republic in Nepal since 1996 and the uprising has claimed nearly 12,000 lives.