Subash Chandra Nemwang said a parliamentary committee had been formed to look at how the house failed to elect a new leader last year despite 16 attempts, and recommend ways to break the stalemate.
The committee will make its recommendations next week, paving the way for a fresh attempt to form a government, he said.
Nepal has been without a government since June when former prime minister Madhav Kumar Nepal stood down under pressure from the opposition Maoist party.
Leaders of the troubled country`s three biggest parties stood for election to succeed him, but none managed to win the necessary absolute majority in parliament in any of the 16 votes held.
On Wednesday the only remaining candidate, Ram Chandra Poudel of the centrist Nepali Congress party, withdrew from the race.
"I am hopeful that the parliamentary panel formed today to resolve the election crisis will be the first step towards ending this deadlock," Nemwang told AFP.
"There is as yet no breakthrough, but I have urged the political parties to forge consensus on the several issues that have so far divided them, and they have expressed their commitment to do so."
The Maoists, who fought a 10-year battle against the state before entering politics and winning elections in 2008, have repeatedly said that as the largest single party in parliament they should lead the government.
But they do not have an absolute majority, and have been unable to win the support of smaller parties that they would need to form a coalition government.
The crisis has been hugely damaging for Nepal, which is still reeling from its decade of civil war, in which more than 16,000 people died.
The standoff has delayed the drafting of a new national constitution viewed as a crucial step in Nepal`s rapid transformation from semi-feudal Hindu monarchy to secular democracy.
The constitution was a key component of the 2006 agreement that ended the Maoist insurgency, and a leading think-tank warned Thursday that failure to complete it by a May 28 deadline could result in serious unrest.
The International Crisis Group said the proposed creation of federal states that would devolve more power to minority groups had become a major demand of ethnic and regional activists in Nepal.
"Federal restructuring of the state has emerged as an important commitment in Nepal`s constitutional process," it said.
"If the constitution is not promulgated in time or a decision on federalism is deferred, serious unrest could follow." (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
