The first of thousands of former Maoist fighters to accept pay-offs to leave camps that have housed them since the end of the country's civil war in 2006 moved out on Friday.

Their departures follow a new peace deal struck late last year with former rebels offering the 19,000 fighters a way out of the camps to which they were assigned at the end of the fighting.

They were given three options -- voluntary retirement payoff, integration into the army, or a rehabilitation package including vocational training.

An overwhelming majority expressed interest in joining the country's national army, while 7,365 of them opted for the 500,000-800,000 rupees ($6,300-$10,200) pay-off.

Several hundred left on Friday in the first wave of departures.

"The release of the combatants is a major step towards the peace process," Balananda Sharma, coordinator of the cross-party special committee tasked with the reintegration of the former fighters, said in south-central Nepal.

According to the deal, 6,500 former fighters will be integrated into the national army.

Seven camps were set up across the country after the end of fighting in 2006 and were monitored by the United Nations until January last year.

The Maoists fought a decade-long war against the state in which at least 16,000 people died.

The former rebels joined mainstream politics in 2006, going on to win landmark elections two years later and abolishing the country's 240-year-old monarchy.