More than a month after the Maoists quit its fledgling Government, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon will visit Nepal on Saturday to meet new Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and give a fillip to the peace process in the country.

Menon, who will be in Kathmandu for the second time in four months, will also meet a host of political leaders, including former PM and Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda”. Sources said meetings are being fixed with Foreign Minister Sujata Koirala, Deputy Prime Minister Bijay Kumar Gachhadar and Defence Minister Bidya Bhandari amongst others.

Key to the discussions will be the speeding up of the political process in Nepal, especially the drafting of the new Constitution, for which May 2010 has been set as the deadline. But, according to sources though the deadline was set in May 2008, there has been no tangible movement on the Constitution so far. Menon agenda will be to convince the political leadership in Kathmandu to expedite the peace process by building “consensus” amongst political parties.

The Foreign Secretary will also be looking to push forward several pending bilateral issues, many of which were agreed to during Prachanda’s visit to India last September. Menon’s discussion will focus on the extradition treaty—which has been waiting for Nepal’s political leadership’s approval for the past two years— and the exchange of maps to counter allegations of encroachments. A review of the 1950 India-Nepal friendship treaty will also be taken up with the leaders.