Honduras faced growing pressure today to reinstate ousted president Manuel Zelaya after the Organisation of American States set a 72-hour deadline to end a crisis triggered by a military coup.
The coup has spiralled into the worst political turmoil in Central America since the US invasion of Panama in 1989, after troops captured Mr Zelaya and whisked him out of the country to Costa Rica in a dawn raid on Sunday.
The ouster of Mr Zelaya - a timber magnate forced out over his push to extend presidential re-election beyond a single four-year term - was widely condemned by figures ranging from US President Barack Obama to Mr Zelaya's left-wing allies in Latin America.
Mr Zelaya has vowed to return, accompanied by foreign leaders, to serve out his term ending in 2010, defying a warning from an interim government that he faces arrest if he arrives in Honduras, a major coffee producer.
But with the OAS setting an ultimatum for the interim government to back down, Mr Zelaya told reporters in Washington he now did not expect to return before the weekend. Mr Zelaya headed to Panama today to attend the inauguration of the new president there, a US official said in Washington.
His arrival in Honduras - Mr Zelaya said yesterday the Argentine and Ecuadorean presidents and the UN General Assembly and OAS chiefs would accompany him back to Honduras - could trigger a diplomatic standoff.
Roberto Micheletti, sworn in as caretaker president by the Honduran Congress soon after the coup, opened a potential window for talks by sending a delegation to Washington.
However, it was not clear who the delegation might see - OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza said officials from the organisation had no plans to meet with any delegation from the caretaker government. A senior US official said that no one from the Obama administration would see the representatives.
The Pentagon said today the US military had postponed activities with its Honduran counterpart while the Obama administration reviewed the situation in Honduras.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he could not specify what activities had been postponed. "It's only prudent, as we assess this situation, to postpone the activities," he told reporters.
The US military has a task force of about 600 troops stationed at a Honduran base northwest of the capital city. Honduras was a US ally in the 1980s when Washington helped Central American governments fight Marxist rebels.
The OAS resolution, agreed early today in an emergency session at its Washington headquarters, demanded the "immediate, safe, and unconditional return of the president to his constitutional functions".
It warned Honduras would be suspended from the body if diplomatic measures to restore democracy failed in 72 hours.
Further pressuring Honduras, France and Spain today recalled their envoys for consultations.
Since coming to power in 2006, Mr Zelaya has become a divisive figure in Honduras, especially after he allied himself with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.
Public support for the wealthy businessman had dropped as low as 30 per cent in recent months, with many Hondurans uncomfortable over his tilt to the left in a country with a longtime conservative, pro-Washington position.
Mr Micheletti, a veteran of Mr Zelaya's Liberal Party who is backed by business and political powerbrokers, has said he plans to stay on until an election in November.
Honduras extended a night-time curfew to the end of the week. Troops and police tightened security at the international airport, but traffic was normal and many stores reopened for business, although schools remained shut.
Several thousand demonstrators yesterday rallied to applaud Mr Zelaya's ouster in the capital Tegucigalpa, after a day of clashes between riot police and the toppled leader's supporters broke out near the presidential palace.
The interim government said Mr Zelaya would be detained if he returned on charges ranging from violating the constitution to drug trafficking.
The crisis erupted as Honduras struggles with a sharp decline in remittances from Hondurans living in the United States and in vital textile exports. Thousands of jobs have already been lost due to the slowdown in exports.
But coffee producers said exports had not been affected even after protesters blocked major highways in the interior of the country.
Reuters