KATHMANDU - THE leader of Nepal's Maoists said on Monday his party would take to the streets if its demands were not met, as he addressed parliament for the first time since stepping down as prime minister.

Pushpa Kamal Dahal - who goes by the name Prachanda, or the fierce one - resigned as prime minister on May 4 after just eight months in the job when the president overruled his decision to sack the head of the army.

A new coalition government has since been formed, but the Maoists - the biggest single party in the house - have blocked parliamentary proceedings for the past two months in protest against the president's move.

On Monday they allowed the house to reopen after the new prime minister pledged to resolve the row over the army chief and the role of the president within the next month.

'If our demands are not met within a month, there will be a movement in the parliament and throughout the country,' said Mr Dahal in a fiery hour-long address.

Mr Dahal also criticised his successor, moderate leftist Madhav Mumar Nepal, who is not an elected member of the parliament.

'If an unelected person becomes the prime minister, what's the use of elections,' he said. 'What kind of message does this send abroad?' Prime Minister Nepal had been under pressure to reach agreement with the Maoists because his government must present its new budget to parliament before the current fiscal year ends on July 15.

The Maoists, who fought a decade-long civil war with Nepal's army before a 2006 peace deal, won nearly 40 per cent of the seats in last year's elections.

During their time in government they were at loggerheads with army chief General Rookmangud Katawal over the integration of Maoist fighters into the military - a key tenet of the peace agreement.

Mr Nepal, who addressed parliament immediately after Mr Dahal, said the warring parties should 'forget past bitterness and move ahead.'

'We will forge an agreement and come to a consensus between the political parties in one month's time regarding the issues of president and the army chief,' he said.

'We will not let the army extend or impose its supremacy upon us.' -- AFP