KMO 1996 Problem 6

Find the minimum value of $k$ such that there exists two sequence ${a_i},{b_i}$ for $i=1,2,\cdots ,k$ that satisfies the following conditions.

(i) For all $i=1,2,\cdots ,k,$ $a_i,b_i$ is the element of $S=\{1996^n|n=0,1,2,\cdots\}.$ (ii) For all $i=1,2,\cdots, k, a_i\ne b_i.$ (iii) For all $i=1,2,\cdots, k, a_i\le a_{i+1}$ and $b_i\le b_{i+1}.$ (iv) $\sum_{i=1}^{k} a_i=\sum_{i=1}^{k} b_i.$