KATHMANDU (AFP) — Seven years after most of Nepal's royal family were massacred by a drunken prince, the country's Maoists look set to scrap the Himalayan monarchy, turning the page on 240 years of history.

An assembly elected in historic polls last month to write a new constitution for the impoverished country is set to make the move when it meets for the first time on Wednesday.

The glum-faced king Gyanendra, with his heavy-handed actions, bears responsibility for the distaste with which people -- who once saw their rulers as incarnations of a Hindu god -- now regard the monarchy, observers say.

"The king and his own family are to be blamed," said analyst Lok Raj Baral, who heads the Nepal Centre for Strategic Studies, a private think-tank.

"He never became a democratic king. He tried to be a one-man show."

The Nepalese accuse Gyanendra of a long list of failings and there are lingering suspicions surrounding his ascension to the throne after the palace tragedy.

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vive la republic ! .. will see if they can make it better ? ...