"We declare the reinstatement of the house of representatives," he said a day before the opposition parties vowed to stage a huge rally in the capital Kathmandu demanding a return to multi-party democracy.

King Gyanendra took absolute power after sacking the government in February last year saying it was corrupt and had failed to tackle a bloody 10-year Maoist insurgency.

The move to restore parliament would be effective from Friday, the king said.

Meanwhile, the US embassy ordered the families of its diplomats to leave crisis-hit Nepal yesterday as opposition leaders planned a huge rally Tuesday after nearly three weeks of violent protests against the king.

The royal government imposed a fresh daytime curfew but clashes continued on the outskirts of the capital Kathmandu Monday and six people died in an attack by Maoist rebels in the country's northeast.

Fifteen protesters were injured when police fired teargas and rubber bullets, and used batons against a group of some 2,000 protesters on the northeastern edge of the capital, a doctor said.

"We have treated around 15 injured who have all been beaten except for one injured from rubber bullets," said doctor Saroj Ojha running a clinic's mobile medical team.

The US embassy told the families and non-essential staff to leave because of concerns over dwindling supplies, shortages in medical expertise, protests and sometimes "violent measures" used by the regime to break them up.

In a statement it warned other American citizens "should also depart Nepal as soon as possible".

Leaders from a seven-party alliance will address a rally at seven points on the 27-kilometre (17-mile) ring road around the capital as senior opposition leaders vowed to take the protest to the royal palace.

"The democratic republic has reached up to the king's ring road and now it moves to the royal palace," protest leader Bamdev Gautam said at a rally on the northern outskirts of the city late Sunday.

But another senior member of his Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) said the "peaceful" protest would not head into the city, where soldiers were defending one of the king's palaces.

The parties said they planned 1,000 marches, mass meetings and effigy burnings Monday as a curtain raiser to the main protest throughout the Kathmandu Valley, the area encompassing the capital and home to 1.7 million people, according to reports.