KATHMANDU, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Police scoured forested hills and remote gorges in west Nepal on Sunday in search of militants who attacked a police post at the weekend, killing one officer, a government spokesman said.

On Saturday, dozens of heavily armed men stormed the Syaulibang police post, about 240 km (150 miles) west of Kathmandu, and looted weapons including five rifles and a pistol, in the biggest attack on police since Maoist rebels ended a civil war in 2006.

The area is close to Rolpa in west Nepal from where the Maoist insurgency began in early 1996.

"We have mobilised police from all directions who have ringed the area and are looking for the attackers," Home (Interior) Ministry spokesman Navin Ghimire told Reuters.

He said no group had claimed responsibility for the attack, which was carried out in the hit-and-run style used by Maoist rebels during their decade-long conflict which killed more than 13,000 people.

Many small armed groups have sprung up in the Himalayan nation, demanding regional autonomy or more of a role in the central government since the Maoists joined the political mainstream under a landmark 2006 peace deal.

The Maoists head a coalition government after winning an election for a constituent assembly held in April last year. (Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Sugita Katyal) (For the latest Reuters news on Nepal see: http://in.reuters.com, for blogs see http://blogs.reuters.com/in/)

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