The two rivals in Honduras' political crisis prepared today to open talks on possible solutions to last month's coup, but a quick breakthrough looked unlikely.
Ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya was flying to Costa Rica for a meeting tomorrow under Costa Rican mediation with the leaders of the June 28th coup.
Mr Zelaya, boosted by widespread international condemnation of his ouster, insists only his immediate return to office can restore order and prevent further unrest in his coffee and textile exporting country, one of the poorest in the Americas.
US president Barack Obama's administration, facing a major test of its promise to improve ties with Latin America, has condemned the coup and supported Mr Zelaya despite expressing misgivings about his policies and political allegiances.
The interim government installed by Honduras' Congress after the coup insists Mr Zelaya's removal was a lawful defence of the constitution. It says the deposed president, who had angered the country's traditional ruling elite with a shift to the left, was acting unlawfully by seeking to remove limits on presidential terms.
Heading the caretaker government, Roberto Micheletti has agreed to tomorrow's talks but says he will not negotiate Mr Zelaya's return to power, posing a challenge to mediator President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica.
"This isn't a situation that can be resolved in a blink of an eye," Carlos Lopez, designated by Mr Micheletti's interim government as envoy to the United Nations, said in Tegucigalpa.
Reiterating the coup leaders' assertion that Mr Zelaya would face judicial charges if he returned, Lopez told Reuters that any negotiated solution was likely to involve "penal proceedings".
Mr Zelaya, who has dismissed Mr Micheletti's administration as a "government of coup plotters" and says he is guilty of treason, also expressed reservations about meeting with those behind his ouster. Mr Zelaya was whisked from his house by soldiers at gunpoint and flown into exile.
"It's difficult to have dealings with thugs to try to find solutions, but we mustn't lose hope," he said in an interview with Chilean television.
The United States, which appears to have persuaded Mr Zelaya to give the talks a chance and refrain from trying to return to power by force, has thrown its weight behind Arias' mediation, also backed by the Organisation of American States.
"We now have a dialogue in place that has a real promise of resolving this through dialogue between conflicting parties," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in Washington.
The OAS on Saturday suspended Honduras after the caretaker government refused to reinstate Mr Zelaya. Mr Zelaya tried to force the issue by trying to fly home on Sunday, but authorities in Honduras stopped his plane from landing.
Reuters