By Sushil Sharma BBC correspondent in Kathmandu

The authorities in Nepal have reported a big decline in the number of tourists visiting the country.

The number went down by more than a quarter in 2002.

The fall has been blamed on bad international publicity about the security situation at home and a slump in world tourism caused by terrorist attacks abroad.

The Nepal Tourism Board said that a little over 200,000 tourists visited Nepal last year, marking a 27% drop over the previous year.

There had been a sharp fall in the number of western tourists visiting the country.

Tourists from countries such as the United States and Britain, who account for a substantial percentage of visitors, declined by more than 40%.

India

The number of Indian tourists has, however, gone up.

Kathmandu has seen a series of protests

Although marginal, the increase has been seen as a good omen because Indians account for nearly a third of the total tourist arrivals.

The number had substantially declined following the hijacking of a Delhi-bound Indian Airlines plane from Kathmandu, three years ago.

The overall poor performance of the country's key industry has been blamed on the security situation caused by the Maoist insurgency.

Seven thousand people have been killed over the past seven years of the rebellion which aims to replace the monarchy with a communist republic.

Although the rebels have vowed not to attack tourists, the series of bomb explosions and general strikes across the country kept many potential tourists away.

The authorities said that such acts gave the country bad international publicity.

Major earner

The slump in world tourism following terrorist threats to western targets after the 11 September, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington also badly affected tourism in Nepal.

The authorities are optimistic that the promotional drives that they have launched will help improve the situation.

Tourism is a major source of foreign currency earnings and employment.

Its revival is crucial to revive the country's battered economy which last year shrank for the first time in 20 years.