WRAPUP 4-Ousted Honduran president sees U.S. support waning

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

* Ousted president says Clinton not taking firm stand

* Zelaya supporters disheartened, many heading home

* Costa Rica's Arias says his plan is best solution
(Adds Zelaya saying no plans to go to Washington)

By Sean Mattson

OCOTAL, Nicaragua , July 26 (Reuters) - Disheartened
supporters of Manuel Zelaya trickled home from the Nicaraguan
border on Sunday and the ousted Honduran president complained
that U.S. condemnation of his removal from power was waning.

The United States, Latin American governments and the
United Nations have demanded Zelaya be returned to power, but
U.S. 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,
complaining she had stopped using the term "coup" to describe
his removal. "The position of the Secretary Clinton at the
beginning was firm. Now I feel that she's not really denouncing
(it) and she's not acting firmly against the repression that
Honduras is suffering," he told reporters.

Honduran troops manning checkpoints have prevented several
thousand demonstrators from staging a show of support for the
leftist leader at the border since Friday.

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.

"We're going to head back to Tegucigalpa where most of the
people are," said teacher Lilian Ordonez, wiping away 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 of hundred Hondurans who managed to reach the
border were camped out in Nicaragua with Zelaya, holed up in
the town of Ocotal planning his next move.

ZELAYA URGES MID-RANKS TO RESIST GENERALS

In comments carried live on pro-Zelaya Radio Globo, he
urged mid-level military officers to mutiny against their
generals, who he said had betrayed Honduras for money.

The Honduran Congress and Supreme Court had accused Zelaya
of trying to extend presidential term limits.

Roberto Micheletti, who was appointed interim president by
Congress, and the head of the joint chiefs of staff, Romeo
Vazquez Velazquez, say Zelaya's removal was legal since he was
acting against the Constitution. The Supreme Court ordered his
arrest and Congress backed his removal.

"As commander in chief of the armed forces, I ask patriotic
soldiers to think of their children, think of their families
and to rebel against Romeo Vazquez," Zelaya said.

The Honduran military issued a statement expressing support
for the negotiating process and affirming respect for civil
institutions and the Constitution -- a move seen as partly a
response to reports in pro-Zelaya media of unease in the middle
ranks of the military.

U.S. President Barack Obama has cut $16.5 million in
military aid to Honduras but has yet to take harsher measures,
and there are growing tensions with Zelaya, a close ally of
Venezuela's anti-American president, Hugo Chavez.

Obama is in a difficult position. He does not want to show
U.S. support for rightist coups, but some Republicans 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 has said Zelaya is expected to
visit Washington on Tuesday but he said he had not been invited
and had no plans to go this week. He also said at an evening
news conference he had heard about a plot to kill him.

STAND-OFF OR A DEAL?

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.

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 open to some parts of
the Arias plan, but not the return of Zelaya as president.

The chiefs of staff have much 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 in unclear
circumstances. It was unclear how he died but Zelaya supporters
blame police. Mourners burned a police car and beat two police
officers, a Reuters photographer on the scene said.

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 Esteban Israel, Marco Aquino, Tomas
Bravo, Gustavo Palencia and Claudia Parsons in Honduras, Ivan
Castro in Nicaragua, Tim Gaynor in Washington; writing by
Claudia Parsons; editing by Mohammad Zargham)