However, the political parties are still striving to forge consensus on the number of federal provinces.

The meeting of the top leaders of the Nepali Congress, the CPN-UML, the UCPN (Maoist) and the United Democratic Madhesi Front held at the Prime Minister's residence in Baluwatar on Tuesday discussed on constitution writing, disaster management and formation of a national consensus government.

According to the leaders, the meeting strived to settle the past disputes and the discussions were heading towards the positive direction.

UML chairman KP Sharma Oli said positive discussions were held in the meeting regarding seeking consensus by putting the country and the people rather than the parties' respective agendas above vis a vis the disputed issues.

"We are working to forge consensus keeping the interests of the country and the people uppermost rather than being entangled in the aftermath of the earthquake. I am confident we will arrive at a consensus and it should," he said.

Asked if the parties were close to a deal regarding the number of provinces, he said, "There will be consensus and if there is one all the information would be provided."

Coordinator of the Madhesi Front Bijaya Kumar Gachchhadar said discussions were held in the meeting around the topic of creating six to eight provinces remaining around the informal agreement reached on January 19. He said the names and the borders of the federal provinces would be decided by the commission of experts later on. He added that their discussions was becoming 'workable' and was 'close to consensus' as well.

The top leaders of the four parties are scheduled to next meet at 5 pm today in their bid to forging consensus within June 4 on topics as constitution writing, disaster management and formation of a national unity government.