KATHMANDU (AFP) - - Holed up within his high-walled Narayanhiti palace, Nepal's king Gyanendra kept a studied silence Friday after a historic assembly abolished his monarchy and gave him a two-week eviction order.

Quite when he will leave the pink-hued palace in the heart of Kathmandu is unclear, although royal-watchers said he was packing his bags and could leave Friday.

The royal flag was taken down early Thursday within hours of a constituent assembly voting to sweep away the monarchy and turn this Himalayan nation into a republic, ending 240 years of dynastic rule.

Gyanendra has a tight deadline to vacate the Narayanhiti palace, which the assembly -- now dominated by former rebel Maoists -- has agreed to turn into a museum.

"He is said to be leaving the palace on Friday," said Kishore Shrestha, who is editor of the royal-watching Nepali-language weekly Jana Aastha.

The king has yet to comment on the constitutional assembly vote that ended his rule.

An estimated 1,500 army soldiers guard the king in his palace, but an army spokesman said they were ready to pull back the security when the government orders.

For now, the palace and its surrounding roads are heavily guarded by riot police. Demonstrations have been banned, but revellers celebrating Nepal's new republican status skirmished with police Thursday on the road leading to the complex.

Police baton-charged and tear-gassed the revellers when they tried to climb a statue of the unloved king's father in order to put a national flag on it.

Nepal has been brimming for weeks with rumours over the king's plans, with each and every departure from the palace in recent days -- including a weekend trip to his summer home and a drive to his sister's house for tea -- watched with bated breath.

"The king is going to have to leave within the next 10 days," said Bimal Sharma, a shopkeeper strolling past the royal residence with his family.

"I don't like this king. This wouldn't have happened with the previous king," said Sharma, referring to Gyanendra's popular older brother Birendra, who was slaughtered in a palace massacre.

That 2001 massacre -- most of the royal family was slain by the then crown prince Dipendra, who was allegedly fuelled by a cocktail of drugs and alcohol -- was what led Gyanendra to ascend the throne.

Dipendra, who had been forbidden from marrying the woman he loved, gunned down his parents the king and queen, and seven other royals before apparently turning the gun on himself.

Gyanendra was at the centre of many conspiracy theories linking him to the killings, and his unpopularity only deepened when he sacked the government and embarked on a period of autocratic rule in early 2005.

Mass protests against Gyanendra's rule led to a landmark peace agreement in 2006 that culminated with the abolition of the monarchy late Wednesday.

Many ordinary Nepalese are delighted to see the back of the dour, unpopular king as well as his son and would-be heir, Paras -- notorious for his playboy lifestyle.

International reaction to the monarchy's demise has focused on how the new political landscape could benefit the poor nation.

While the United States is not yet prepared to strike the Maoists from its terrorist blacklists, Washington has since reversed its previous policy of not negotiating with the group's leaders.

Some 13,000 people were killed in the insurgency launched by the Maoists in 1996 to install a communist republic in the world's only Hindu kingdom.

Britain, Nepal's former colonial ruler, sent its congratulations after the assembly's first session.

Foreign Office Minister Mark Malloch-Brown called it "another step toward the democratic and stable future that the people of Nepal justly deserve."