Nepal's king, facing mounting criticism over his suspension of democracy, said on Sunday he aimed to hold long-delayed polls by April next year.
Addressing a government-backed rally in his honour in Nepal's second city of Pokhara, Gyanendra urged Nepalis to unite to create peace to allow the elections to go ahead.
"We therefore call on all concerned to create an environment wherein the government of the country can be handed over to elected representatives by initiating elections to the House of Representatives by mid-April next year," he said.
"We call upon all Nepalis to unite in the cause of peace, harmony and progress. Violence, terrorism and destruction can only reap ruin."
Elections in Nepal have been delayed since 2002, when Gyanendra sacked the elected prime minister, appointed a royalist replacement and postponed polls set for November that year because of a bloody Maoist rebellion.
It is the first time he has mentioned a timeframe for the polls, but his comments do not commit him to holding them by April, leaving him able to invoke security as a reason to delay them further.
His comments fell far short of demands by the main opposition parties to sack his appointed government, which held only 11 of the 205 seats in the last parliament, and form an all-party government to run the country until elections.
With the political crisis unresolved and the rebellion by the Maoists - fighting to topple the constitutional monarchy - worsening dramatically since peace talks broke down in August, analysts are unconvinced free, fair and secure polls could be organised so quickly.
Britain's special representative for Nepal, Jeffrey James, wrapping up his latest visit to the country on Friday, also said an all-party government was essential before polls.
"Elections require the participation of all democratic parties in a climate free of fear and intimidation and violence," he told reporters in Kathmandu.
"Otherwise the outcome is unlikely to be credible and acceptable to the Nepalese people. This underlines the need for a multiparty government and a successful peace process."
Gyanendra, officially a constitutional monarch but who has taken on total control over the government and the country, faces increasing pressure over his handling of the political crisis and the rebellion.
More than 15,000 people, including Buddhist lamas and hill tribes-people in traditional clothes, attended Sunday's rally.
Some said they were brought by bus by the government, but most were organised by community, religious and pro-government groups drafted to fill the dust-choked stadium in the city, 200 km (125 miles) west of the capital, Kathmandu.
Gyanendra, who assumed power when his brother was killed in a 2001 palace massacre, received a standing ovation as he took his seat below a concrete statue of a holy seven-headed serpent.
But in a sign of the government's lack of control beyond the capital, most of Pokhara closed down and public transport stopped because of a strike called by the Maoists to disrupt the rally.