KATHMANDU, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Nepal's Maoist former rebels said on Tuesday they had quit the interim government after they failed to reach a deal with the prime minister to abolish the Himalayan monarchy.

"We have submitted our resignations to the prime minister," Maoist cabinet minister Dev Gurung told Reuters. "Because the talks were not successful."

The move is a major setback to last year's peace deal in which the former rebels ended a decade-old insurgency that had cost some 13,000 lives and agreed to hold elections for a special assembly to decide the fate of the monarchy.

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