Nepal and Bhutan will hold three-day ministerial level talks in Thimpu from August 20 to resolve the issue of 100,000 Bhutanese refugees living in UNHCR administered camps in east Nepal, a foreign ministry source said. Finance Minister Dr Ram Sharan Mahat will lead the Nepali team since Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba holds the foreign ministry portfolio. Foreign ministers of the two nations had been heading the negotiations to repatriate the refugees home. Nepal will press for speeding up the verification process of the refugees that started for the first time in February after nearly 10 years of procrastination. Verification was necessary because Bhutan claimed the refugees were illegal Nepali immigrants. Nepal says they are Bhutanese forcibly evicted from their homes in Bhutan. The process will take a decade to complete the current rate of progress. Bureau Report