Kathmandu, Oct 12 (IANS): Nepal's major political parties have started decisive talks on the issues of new constitution, officials said Sunday.

The Nepali Congress (NC), Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist (CPN-UML) and Unified Communist Party of Nepal -Maoist (UPCN-M) are engaged in talks on the form of government, electoral and judiciary systems as the deadline of constitution promulgation is approaching, Xinhua reported.

Party leaders seem upbeat that they would explore a compromising point on disputed issues of the new constitution.

The parties have prepared their respective positions on contentious issues of the new constitution.

The three-party talks started Sunday morning and will last for the next couple of days.

The ruling NC Saturday unveiled the official position on contentious issues.

The party said that there should not be more than seven provinces on the basis of economic viability.

The Constituent Assembly Friday provided a week's time for parties to seek consensus on the issues.

The constitution promulgation deadline is Jan 22, 2015.