Though he failed to make any headway in resolving the differences over the allocation of portfolios with Nepali Congress, Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal on Monday said the second expansion of his cabinet will take place within two days.

Speaking to CPN-UML cadres from his home district Rautahat in Kathmandu, premier Nepal said the cabinet will expand its size within two days, resting all speculation of a further delay.

A source close to the NC said that the talks held between PM Nepal and NC president Girija Prasad Koirala on Sunday failed to make any headway, though the differences in portfolio distribution have been sorted out.

The UML's Standing Committee meeting on Monday at Balkhu will finalise the names of the ministers to be appointed from the UML to the coalition government, a source close to the UML said.

He said the UML has claimed both key ministries Home and Finance and would leave one of the two, Water Resources or Local Development besides Health and Labour ministries to the Nepali Congress.

NC party has laid its claim on plum Defence Ministry portfolio, currently taken care by UML leader Vidya Bhandari, according to a source.

The coalition government could not decide on the names to be included in the country's new cabinet headed by Prime Minister Nepal owing to the differences within and among the ruling partners over the issue of portfolio distribution.

There are six ministers without portfolio in the 11 member cabinet even after its first expansion.

Meanwhile, PM Nepal on Sunday instructed government secretaries to deliver concrete results to the people within the next one hundred days of government assuming the office, sources said.

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