WRAPUP 2-Pro-Zelaya border protest weakens in Honduras

(For full coverage of Honduras, click on [nN28343997])

* Zelaya supporters disheartened, many heading home

* Honduran president hits back at Clinton again

* Arias says his proposal remains best solution
(Adds tension in capital, details)

By Sean Mattson and Esteban Israel

EL PARAISO, Honduras, July 26 (Reuters) - Disheartened
supporters of deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya trickled
home from the Nicaraguan border on Sunday, weakening protests
backing his bid to return to power after a coup last month.

Honduran troops manning checkpoints have prevented several
thousand demonstrators from staging a show of support at the
border for the leftist leader, now exiled in Nicaragua.

Six miles (10 km) from the border, 100 weary protesters
milled around the coffee town of El Paraiso, a far cry from the
massive outpouring of public backing Zelaya had called for.

Lilian Ordonez, a 29-year-old teacher, came with a convoy
of some 100 cars to try to reach the border, but only six made
it through the checkpoints.

"We're going to head back to Tegucigalpa where most of the
people are," she said, wiping off tears. "We have to change our
strategy. ... People are angry but we don't have weapons and
against a rifle, we can't do anything."

A couple hundred Hondurans who managed to reach the border
were camped out in Nicaragua with Zelaya, holed up in the town
of Ocotal on Sunday planning his next move.

Zelaya was accused by the Honduran Congress and Supreme
Court of trying to extend presidential term limits. Soldiers
arrested him and sent him into exile on June 28.

The United States, Latin American governments and the
United Nations want Zelaya returned to power, but Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton criticized him as "reckless" when he took
a few steps onto Honduran soil on Friday in a symbolic gesture
in front of international media.

Zelaya hit back at Clinton for the second time in two days.
She should "stop avoiding the issue" of dictatorship in
Honduras, he told journalists. "Secretary Clinton should
confront the dictatorship with force."

Roberto Micheletti, who was appointed interim president by
Congress the day after the coup, says Zelaya's removal was
legal since he was acting against the Constitution. The Supreme
Court ordered his arrest and Congress backed his removal.

U.S. President Barack Obama has cut $16.5 million in
military aid to Honduras and threatened to slash economic aid.

But Obama has yet to take harsher measures and there are
growing tensions with Zelaya, a close ally of Venezuela's
anti-American president, Hugo Chavez.

TENSIONS WITH U.S.

The crisis has put Obama in a difficult position. He does
not want to show U.S. support for rightist coups in Latin
America, but some Republicans in Congress say he has already
done too much for the ousted leftist.

"It's been very clear from the outset that (the Obama
administration) didn't really like Zelaya anyway," said Vicki
Gass, an analyst with the Washington Office on Latin America.

"This wishy-washiness on their part is giving the
impression that they are backing away from their original
stance," she said.

The U.S. State Department said Zelaya is expected to visit
Washington on Tuesday but it was unclear from his aides whether
he would make the trip and who he would meet if he does go.

Micheletti seems to believe he can resist international
pressure until elections in November and the world will accept
the new order when a new president takes office in January.

The alternative is a negotiated solution under pressure
from Washington, likely modeled on a proposal by Costa Rican
President Oscar Arias. In an interview with El Pais published
on Sunday, Arias said his plan remained the only option and
that Zelaya's actions on Friday did not help reconciliation.

The plan "is the best path for our Honduran brothers to get
out of this conflict," he said. While he said the coup must be
reversed, he added that it was unrealistic for Zelaya to demand
an unconditional return.

The Micheletti government says it is still committed to
negotiations and open to some of the terms of the Arias plan,
but not the return of Zelaya as president.

The Honduran military issued a statement expressing support
for the negotiating process and affirming respect for civil
institutions and the Constitution.

The military chiefs of staff would be among those with most
to lose if Zelaya does return as president, since their
position would be weakened if there is an admission that they
acted illegally in removing him.

Zelaya's relations with the military were tense before the
coup. Just days before he was removed from power, he fired the
military chief of staff after the army refused to help him run
an unofficial referendum on extending his mandate.

In the capital, Tegucigalpa, tensions bubbled up at the
funeral of a man found dead in El Paraiso on Saturday in
unclear circumstances. Mourners burned a police car and beat
two police officers, a Reuters photographer on the scene said.
It was unclear how he died but Zelaya supporters blame police.

Leaders of the pro-Zelaya movement said a small explosive
device went off outside a building where they were meeting,
breaking windows but causing no injuries.
(Additional reporting by Marco Aquino, Tomas Bravo and
Gustavo Palencia in Honduras, Ivan Castro in Nicaragua, Tim
Gaynor in Washington; writing by Claudia Parsons; editing by
Todd Eastham)