Tegucigalpa Honduras

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Honduras' opposing factions agreed Tuesday on nearly every point of a pact to end the political crisis except the central issue: ousted President Manuel Zelaya's return to the presidency.

Negotiators said Zelaya's camp has promised that if he returns to power, he will drop his efforts to change the Honduran constitution, an initiative that led to his June 28 ouster.

Juan Barahona, a Zelaya supporter who has led street protests against the coup, walked out of the talks Tuesday in protest of the agreement on the constitution. He vowed to continue fighting for a new constitution on his own even if Zelaya is restored to office.

Critics say Zelaya was seeking to extend his time in office by removing a constitutional ban on presidential re-election, as his ally Hugo Chavez has done in Venezuela. Zelaya denied that was his intention, but soldiers flew him into exile at gunpoint after he ignored court orders to drop a referendum to ask Hondurans if they wanted an assembly to rewrite the constitution.

Zelaya sneaked back into Honduras on Sept. 21 and is holed up at the Brazilian Embassy. The United States and other countries have suspended aid to the Central American country to pressure the interim government to restore Zelaya.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Honduras' opposing factions have resumed talks aimed at ending the crisis prompted by the June ouster of President Manuel Zelaya.

The talks initiated last week produced some signs of progress before breaking off for the weekend.

Zelaya negotiator Rassel Tome says she hopes Tuesday's negotiations will advance on the central point – Zelaya's return to power.

The international community has been pressuring the interim government to reinstate Zelaya before the Nov. 29 presidential election that was scheduled before the coup. Micheletti's government has rejected the plan so far.

Micheletti representative Armando Aguilar says talks could continue for weeks.

There has been much discussion about the constitutional right to oust Honduras president Manuel Zelaya. The crisis itself has made the headlines in ma...

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Business and political leaders who backed the coup overthrowing President Manuel Zelaya now are considering the unthinkable: returning him to office with limited powers.

The reversal, and Zelaya's decision to consider it, reflect the growing desperation to resolve a three-month standoff that has turned this Central American country upside down.

John Biehl, special adviser to the Organization of American States, said Wednesday he sensed some movement toward talks.

"The moment has arrived for tempers to cool and reason to reign, and that's when errors will start being corrected," Biehl said.

"I have found a strong willingness for dialogue," he added, noting that he had heard of proposals to return Zelaya to office until his term ends in January.

Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya gave U.S.-backed talks in Costa Rica until the end of Saturday to restore him to office, warning he would return to his country with or without an agreement.

Zelaya said he would consider negotiations a failure unless an agreement that restores him to the presidency is reached by midnight.

He did not say what he would do if the talks collapse, but earlier this week he said Hondurans have a constitutional right to launch an insurrection against an illegitimate government. His foreign minister, Patricia Rodas, has said Zelaya would return to Honduras to install a parallel government if negotiations fail.

"Tomorrow at midnight is the deadline for the rebel government to abide by the resolutions of the U.N. and the OAS to restore me to power," Zelaya said Friday at a news conference at the Honduran Embassy in Nicaragua, referring to demands by the United Nations and the Organization of American States that he be restored to the presidency. "If at that time, there is no resolution to that end, I will consider the negotiations in Costa Rica a failure."

Zelaya, who was forced into exile in a June 28 military coup, said he would return to Honduras in secret if no agreement is reached. The interim government thwarted his last attempt to fly back home by sending military vehicles to block the runway, preventing his plane from landing in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa.