Honduras' Zelaya accepts unity government proposal

By Simon Gardner and Ana Isabel Martinez

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica/TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras' ousted President Manuel Zelaya agreed on Saturday to a power-sharing government as a way out of his country's political crisis, but his enemies rejected any deal that puts him back in the presidency.

Zelaya, who was toppled in a military coup on June 28 and is in exile in neighboring Nicaragua, backed the proposal for a government of national reconciliation put forward by the mediator in talks aimed at ending Honduras' political crisis.

But his commitment to the compromise solution was cast in doubt when a close adviser later said Zelaya would exclude any of the coup plotters from any such government.

"The president can talk about a reconciliation government, but not one that includes people who took part in the coup," Allan Fajardo, a close adviser who is with Zelaya in Nicaragua told Reuters by telephone. "There can be no coup-mongers."

Zelaya also said in an interview with a Honduran radio station that he would return to Honduras in the coming days despite warnings by the de facto government that he would be arrested.

Costa Rica's Nobel Peace Prize-winning president, Oscar Arias, is trying to broker a compromise deal between Zelaya and interim president Roberto Micheletti, the former speaker of Congress who replaced him in a June 28 military coup.

A new round of talks opened in Costa Rica on Saturday with Arias laying out seven points for discussion, including Zelaya's return to power to complete his term ending in January 2010 and the formation of a coalition government with all the country's political parties represented.

Arias also proposed an amnesty for any political crimes committed after the coup and that Zelaya abandon his plans to hold a referendum on extending presidential terms.

But a spokesman for Micheletti's interim government again insisted it will not allow Zelaya's return to power.

"They want the reinstatement of President Zelaya without any form of negotiation," Mario Saldana, a spokesman for the caretaker government, told Reuters, adding that it had rejected the proposal.

The Honduran army was on maximum alert and boosted its presence in Zelaya's home region of Olancho, where about 100 of his supporters gathered on his ranch, and other places seen as possible points of return, an army source said.

The coup triggered the worst political crisis in Central America since the end of the Cold War and poses a challenge for President Barack Obama as he tries to improve U.S. relations with Latin America.

Zelaya upset Honduras' business elite and moderates in his own Liberal party with his leftist policies and rhetoric after taking office in 2005, allying himself with Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez.

The military ousted Zelaya and whisked him out of the country, accusing him of violating the constitution by trying to extend presidential term limits.

Zelaya vowed from exile in Nicaragua on Friday to return to Honduras "one way or another," regardless of the outcome of the negotiations. His wife Xiomara Castro told Reuters that Zelaya had set a Saturday deadline for a deal in the talks.