Prachanda, who was in Britain on a private visit left Wednesday for Belarus, a major European outpost of Communism, from where he will travel to Russia before returning to Kathmandu, Nepali Samaj coordinator Rana Bahadur KC told IANS.

However, the reason for Prachanda's visit to the British capital remained unclear.

Before leaving Nepal, the Maoist leader denied newspaper reports that he wanted to attend a meeting of an umbrella of international Maoist movements and assume its leadership.

Although one Nepali source in London insisted 'he came for some purpose', Rana Bahadur KC said Prachanda wanted to interact with his supporters in Britain.

'He wanted to meet the cadres and give us some 'prashikshan' (education), including a briefing on the situation in Nepal and what happened in the last party meeting,' Rana Bahadur KC said.