Verification of the refugees' nationality could take years

This is the first ministerial meeting between Bhutan and Nepal since they reached a crucial agreement earlier this year to start the verification of refugees.

The Nepalese team at the talks is being led by a senior minister, Ram Sharan Mahat. The Bhutanese side is being led by its Foreign Minister, Jigme Thinley.

About 100,000 ethnic Nepalese, who say they are Bhutanese, have been living in camps in eastern Nepal for the past 10 years.

They say they were forced to leave Bhutan in the wake of alleged ethnic and political repression.

Nepal says all refugees are Bhutanese and they have the right to return to their homeland.

Calls to speed up

But Bhutan is prepared to take back only genuine Bhutanese refugees which it says are not more than a few thousand.

Verification of about 6,000 refugees has already been completed since the process began three months ago. But critics say at this rate the verification and eventual repatriation of refugees would take several years.

Refugee organisations have also demanded that the process be speeded up. The talks on Monday are aimed at finding mutually acceptable ways to accelerate the process.