(Recasts with U.S. official's visit )

By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU, Feb 10 (Reuters) - A top U.S. official said on Saturday that the failure of Maoists to renounce violence in Nepal and growing unrest by ethnic groups were threats to the Himalayan nation's progress towards democracy.

U.S. Under Secretary of State for Management Henrietta H. Fore said the U.S. government welcomed the progress Nepal had made in striking a peace deal with the Maoists and ending a decade-old civil war in which some 13,000 people died.

Under the November peace deal, the Maoists will join a multi-party interim government before this year's elections for a constituent assembly that will draw up a new constitution.

Fore, the most senior U.S. official to visit Nepal since the peace process began last year, said challenges remained.

"In following events here, my government has become worried by two trends that, if unresolved, threaten Nepal's democratic progress," she told reporters, condemning the Maoists for continuing violence, extortion and intimidation.

"The Maoists themselves must finally renounce violence and begin acting like a mainstream political party," Fore said.

"If they cannot, then the United States believes they do not deserve membership in a coalition government whose other partners play by the rules of civility and non-violence," Fore said.

She said Washington was also worried over growing unrest among various ethnic groups in the Himalayan nation and asked the government to engage in talks with them.

At least 31 people have died in protests and many areas were crippled by strikes this year by Madhesis, an ethnic group from the southern plains, other lower-caste Hindu groups and poor highlanders demanding greater shares in government jobs and parliament.

Authorities imposed curfews on two south-western Nepali villages on Saturday, a day after one person died in clashes between ethnic Madhesis protesting for more autonomy and villagers defying their strike.

More than a dozen people were also wounded on Friday in the clashes in Khajura and Kohalpur villages during a general strike called by the Madhesi People's Rights Forum, police said.

The Madhesis live along the narrow strip of the Terai region which is home to nearly half of Nepal's 26 million people and share closer cultural links with neighbouring India than with Nepalis residing in the Himalayan mountains of the north.

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