Nepal's King Gyanendra has announced an end to the emergency he had imposed Feb 1, bowing to intense pressure at home and abroad.

But opposition parties fear they will still be persecuted.

The king returned to Kathmandu Friday after a 10-day foreign visit, during which he attended two international conferences - the Asia-Africa Summit in Jakarta and the Boao Forum for Asia in Hainan, southern China.

The monarch held a meeting with his ministers, resulting in a late night statement that the state of emergency, under which he dismissed the government of prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and assumed absolute power, was lifted from Friday.

The three-month period of prohibitions, which resulted in the suspension of civil liberties, media censorship and widespread arrest of political leaders, journalists, rights activists and members of civil society, was nearing expiry next week.

However, the major opposition parties treated the announcement with disbelief, pointing out that a controversial commission formed during emergency had not been disbanded.

Within a fortnight of imposing emergency, King Gyanendra had formed a Royal Commission for Corruption Control with handpicked former bureaucrats that was given unprecedented power to investigate, try and sentence anyone it wanted.

The commission triggered intense controversy when it summoned eight ministers for interrogation over allegations of irregularity. The ministers included Deuba, who was arrested from his residence in a midnight raid, an incident condemned by former Nepalese prime ministers Girija Prasad Koirala and Surya Bahadur Thapa, Nepal's National Human Rights Commission and the Indian government.

However, the commission, which was to have ended with the lifting of emergency, was given a fresh lease of life under a different constitutional provision.

"This proves our contention that the commission was politically motivated from its birth," said Minendra Rizal, spokesman of Deuba's Nepali Congress (Democratic) party.

"What the king says is not what he does. He claimed emergency was needed to combat the Maoist insurgency but look at the people arrested during the period. They are mostly leaders of opposition parties who believe in a peaceful struggle."

Several senior opposition leaders, arrested since the royal coup, will complete 90 days in custody next week. Rizal said the opposition would be watching to see if they would be released now that emergency has been lifted.

Communist leader and former deputy prime minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari, who was released this month but whose party chief, Madhav Kumar Nepal of the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist, still remains under house arrest, said his party had no faith in the king.

"Emergency was lifted due to pressure from the international community," Adhikari said. "But there is still no transparency or atmosphere of trust. If the government can arrest a former prime minister from his residence at midnight and opposition leaders in broad daylight for just holding consultations, it is clear it is targeting the multi-party system. There is still no rule of law in Nepal."

Mahesh Acharya, former finance minister and leader of the Nepali Congress, one of the largest parties in Nepal, echoed Rizal.

"Most of our top leaders are still under arrest, including party spokesman Arjun Narsingh KC," he said. "It is not clear when detainees would be released. Neither is it clear if media censorship has been lifted. By lifting the emergency, the king has only addressed some symptoms, not the disease.