Nepal's peace process is at a "very serious point", the United Nations' top political official said yesterday, urging party leaders to act on pledges made at the end of the war.

B Lynn Pascoe said he was concerned that the peace process had stalled, three and a half years after the decade-long conflict between Maoist guerrillas and the state came to a close.

"We do see things at a very serious point here, the process is just not moving the way it should be," he told journalists after meeting Maoist army commanders at a cantonment, 175 kilometres (110 miles) south of Kathmandu.

"I'm here to see what we can do to push the process along by emphasising that it is very important to move and it's time to take action," said Pascoe, the UN under-secretary-general for political affairs.

More than 16,000 people were killed in Nepal's conflict, and Pascoe warned there was a "danger of moving backwards", pointing out that 50 percent of countries return to war within 10 years of a peace agreement being signed.