Girija Prasad Koirala in Kathmandu after his release. (AFP)

Kathmandu, April 1: In an attempt to placate the international community including India, the US and Britain, King Gyanendra?s government today released former Prime Minister and Nepali Congress president Girija Prasad Koirala from house arrest after a two-month detention.

The release of the ?Grand Old Man? of Nepali politics comes as the Chinese foreign minister Li Zhaoxing wound up his two-day visit to Nepal.

The 82-year-old Koirala, who served as Prime Minister on four different occasions, was arrested after King Gyanendra seized power on February 1.

Koirala?s release is significant as he is expected to spearhead the movement for the restoration of multi-party democracy for the second time in two decades.

The king, who has been under considerable pressure from the US and India over the royal coup, is expected to use Koirala?s release as leverage to garner a commitment from Washington on the supply of arms.

The Bush administration had promised to deliver a large cache of small arms and ammunition in May this year.

India, too, is likely to make some conciliatory moves in the aftermath of Koirala?s release, which comes two weeks after former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba was freed from house arrest.

Indian ambassador Shiv Shankar Mukherjee was the first foreign diplomat to meet Koirala a few minutes after he was released. The Indian embassy had been tipped off about the release earlier in the day.

Mukherjee drove down to the former premier?s residence in Mahargunj and held closed-door discussions with him for a short while.

The talks reportedly dwelt on the political situation in the country and the possibility of King Gyanendra making conciliatory moves towards political parties.

Later, the Indian embassy issued a statement saying that it hoped today?s development would lead to the immediate release of Communist Party (UML) general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal and other detained political leaders and workers, human rights activists, student leaders and journalists.

?India calls for the removal of all curbs on civil liberties and fundamental rights and the lifting of media censorship and restriction on movement to enable the people of Nepal to enjoy their legitimate constitutional and democratic rights.

?We believe that this would pave the way for the beginning of a process of reconciliation between the constitutional forces leading to a restoration of multi-party democracy,? the statement added.

The statement further said that it has always been India?s conviction that a broad national consensus was necessary to address the serious challenges confronting Nepal.

?India will continue to support all efforts in this direction,? it added.

Later in the evening, the Nepali Congress, which spearheaded Nepal?s democracy movement in the 1980s leading to the introduction of multi-party democracy in 1990, welcomed Koirala?s release, saying it was long overdue.

In a statement, Nepali Congress leader Bipin Koirala said that the government should now move towards releasing other political leaders and cadres, among others, immediately.