Nearly seven months after the success of the April Uprising, the seven-party alliance and Maoist leadership have finally narrowed down their positions.

But some issues are delaying an agreement:
. A deal on what is euphemistically called 'arms management'. Questions include: where will they be stored, who keeps the keys, what kind of surveillance will there be, how about socket bombs?
. Citizenship issues, such as a cut-off date etc.
. Rehabilitation of the Maoist army and militia and reduction of the Nepal Army to pre-insurgency size.
. The monarchy, the fate of which the Maoists are demanding be decided first.
. Constituencies for constituent assembly elections, and the composition of the CA.

It looks daunting, but the good news is that both sides know they have to accommodate each other to survive. They are also under unrelenting arm-twisting from the international community to find the middle ground.

What is really delaying the peace process is an absence of trust. With so much bad blood from the past 11 years of violence, the government and the rebels are still wary of each other. That is why in public the Maoists are always downplaying arms management, while the government tries to make it a precondition for talks.

The Maoists need to initially lay down arms and then renounce violence. There is no other way and they know it. But they also know if they do that too quickly their commanders will rebel. The compromise: this needn't be a pre-condition for settlement. A package agreement can include a mutually acceptable method of management of arms. If there was trust, this wouldn't be difficult.

The Nepal Army has already been confined to barracks. The Maoist militia must be similarly cantoned. Reform and cutbacks of the Nepal Army and a formula for rehabilitation could be the confidence-building measures to enable Maoist leaders to sell the idea of demobilisation to their edgy comrades.

We need a sense of urgency, but undue hurry may be counterproductive. The international community wants to wrap things up before the New Year break. But sensitive political negotiations can't be rushed or squeezed to suit the timetable of outsiders. People walk slower arm-in-arm than when they stride along separately.

It's up to the seven-party alliance and the Maoists to show that they have now built trust and they are walking together up the peace path in a surefooted manner.