Nepal's president has ordered Parliament to meet in early January to try to end the Himalayan nation's political deadlock and elect a new prime minister, officials said Tuesday. Nepal has had a caretaker government since last June when Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal resigned bowing to pressure from the opposition Maoist party. Parliament has held 16 unsuccesful votes for prime minister since then, and ended its last session in November in a brawl over the annual budget. The political stalemate has set back progress on the peace process that ended the Maoists' insurgency, which claimed thousands of lives. The Maoists are now in the political mainstream but the future of thousands of their former fighters whom they want enrolled in the national army remains unresolved. The country's three top parties -- the Maoists and the two parties that lead the caretaker government -- each want their candidate to be prime minister, but none has a majority in the 601-member chamber and they must agree on a power-sharing agreement to divvy up Cabinet positions. President Ram Baran Yadav said in a statement that he has summoned the Parliament to start a session Jan. 9. The country's winter Parliament session usually begins in February. Dina Nath Sharma, a spokesman for the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), said the groups would try to end their differences and move ahead with national reconciliation efforts. 'Our main and first priority would be to try elect a new prime minister so that a new government can be formed,' Sharma said. Navendra Raj Joshi of the Nepali Congress party said his group is also hopeful that an agreement can be reached on a new government. 