KATMANDU, Nepal - Nepal, plunged into a state of emergency after a rash of deadly guerrilla attacks, yesterday sent soldiers in pursuit of the Maoist rebels across the Himalayan kingdom.

The rebels, who have been fighting for six years to oust Nepal's monarchy and to install a socialist state, broke off a four-month cease-fire with a series of attacks that have killed 76 soldiers, police officers and government officials since Friday.

Twenty-eight people were killed Sunday night alone in Solukhumbu, 125 miles north of Katmandu, Interior Security Minister Khum Bahadur Khadka said.

The rebels also suffered heavy casualties, Khadka said.

Yesterday, King Gyanendra accepted a Cabinet recommendation and declared a state of emergency, allowing the government to suspend civil liberties and send soldiers to fight the rebels.

In the past, the military has been limited to defending Nepal only from foreign attack.

Airports and borders were to remain open and government offices to function as normal, but security was tightened across the nation, Khadka said.

The emergency measures restrict freedom of the press, as well as freedom of assembly, expression and movement. Suspects can be detained for three weeks without charges, the palace said.

The military and the armed police were being mobilized to comb rebel hide-outs, concentrated mostly in the remote hills of midwest Nepal.

The Maoist guerrillas fashion themselves after Peru's Shining Path guerrillas and draw their name from China's revolutionary communist leader Mao Tse-tung.

Their insurgency, launched in 1996, has claimed the lives of more than 1,800 people.

Wednesday, the rebel leader known as Prachanda called off peace talks, saying attempts at an agreement failed after the government rejected his demand for a new constitution.

The Maoists also blame Gyanendra for the June 1 royal massacre that killed the previous king and eight other royal family members dead. An official investigation found that Crown Prince Dipendra shot and killed his parents and other relatives.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed concern over the flare-up of violence.

"The secretary-general regrets that the insurgents abandoned peace talks with the government that started last August," U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said in New York. "He will continue to follow closely the developments in Nepal."