UNITED NATIONS, July 23 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Security Council voted on Thursday to extend the mandate of its mission in Nepal for a further six months until Jan. 23, 2010.

    "The peace process has stagnated to a certain degree," the UN secretary-general's advisor on Nepal, Karin Landgren, told reporters. "It is the Security Council's hope that the government will take the peace process forward."

    The resignation of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ("Prachanda") in early May, which occurred one day after the Chief of Army Staff -- who he had fired -- was reinstated, sparked a considerable slowdown in the integration and rehabilitation of Maoist army personnel and the drafting of a new constitution.

    Last week, UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon recommended that the mandate of the UN Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) be extended after Nepal's political leaders said its presence is needed until the integration and rehabilitation of the Maoist army personnel is resolved.

    After the abolition of the monarchy and the end of the civil war, Nepal has been struggling to fight anarchy, insecurity and impunity. Just this month, the UN warned of an "alarming" rise in kidnappings for ransom in Nepal, saying the absence of security enforcement was encouraging a culture of impunity.

    Also of "serious concern," said Landgren, is the country's staggering economy, which has been dealt a heavy blow since the international financial crisis.

    In the past several months, the number of remittances, which constitute a significant portion of Nepal's economy, has plummeted as there are simply fewer people heading off to work in other parts of the world.

    On a positive note, Landgren told reporters that the government was making slow but encouraging signs of progress in the recent discharge and rehabilitation of 4,008 Maoist soldiers who did not go through the original registration process in 2007.

    Of these, the UN has identified about 3,000 as being under the age of 18, said Landgren.

    About 24,000 former fighters are still living in camps monitored by the UNMIN, which has been in the country since 2007.