Prachanda led a decade-long insurgency to overthrow the monarchy [AFP]

Prachanda was voted in by members of the country's constitutional assembly on Friday, ending months of political deadlock that followed the sacking of the unpopular king Gyanendra.

Prachanda was backed by 464 deputies, with 113 against, defeating his only rival Sher Bahadur Deuba, a three-time former prime minister and member of the Nepali Congress party.

"Today is a day of pride and it will be written with golden letters in the history of the nation," Baburam Bhattarai, Prachanda's colleague who is seen as the number two in the Maoist hierarchy, said.

He also said that said Maoist politicians would no longer hold any posts in the Maoist rebel army and would return property seized by them during the war.

Prachanda, whose given name is Pushpa Kamal Dahal, led a decade-long insurgency to overthrow the monarchy - a war that cost the lives of at least 13,000 people and devastated one of the world's poorest countries.

The Maoists signed a peace deal with mainstream parties in 2006, vowed to renounce violence and steered his party, the Communist Party of Nepal - Maoists, to victory in elections to a new constitutional assembly in April.

The Maoists then won a special assembly election but did not get a parliamentary majority, leaving Nepal struggling to form a government four four months after the polls.

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