Kathmandu, Oct 23: Thousands of displaced Bhutanese are expected to return home from neighbouring Nepal starting early next year, Nepalese officials said today, in a breakthrough for a long-standing refugee crisis. There are more than 100,000 Bhutanese living in seven UN-run camps in eastern Nepal, about 500 km east of Kathmandu.

Most are believed to have fled Bhutan in the late 1980s, when the government there - dominated by the majority Drukpa ethnic group - accused the minority Lothsampa group of Being illegal immigrants. Bhutan had refused to take the refugees back, saying many are not Bhutanese citizens.

But after three days of negotiations with Bhutanese officials, a Nepalese delegation returned to Kathmandu today and said that up to 75 percent of the 12,000 refugees from one camp would be allowed to return to Bhutan.

"A written agreement was signed between Nepal and Bhutan agreeing to begin repatriation of the first batch of refugees from the Khudunabari Camp within the next four months," Nepal's special representative Bhekh Bahadur Thapa told reporters. Bureau Report