Ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya has warned he will deem mediation talks over the country's political crisis "failed" unless he is reinstated at the next meeting, likely this weekend.
Mediator Costa Rica said yesterday it may call Honduras's interim government and Mr Zelaya's negotiators within eight days for fresh talks. One of Mr Zelaya's negotiators, Milton Jimenez, said the next round would be held this weekend.
The talks began last week and stopped after two days, making scant progress.
Mr Zelaya insists on his reinstatement after the June 28th coup. But Roberto Micheletti, installed as interim president by Honduras's Congress, is adamant Mr Zelaya cannot return to power under any circumstances because was seeking to illegally extend his rule through the lifting of presidential term limits.
No foreign government has recognised Mr Micheletti as president. The United States, the Organisation of American States and the UN General Assembly have called for Mr Zelaya to be restored to office after the coup in the impoverished Central American country.
"We are giving an ultimatum to the coup regime, that at the latest in the next meeting this week in San Jose, Costa Rica, they should carry out the expressed [OAS and UN] resolutions [to reinstate me]," Mr Zelaya told a news conference in Managua.
"If not, then this mediation will be considered to have failed," he added, wearing his trademark white cowboy hat.
A spokesman for Costa Rican president Oscar Arias, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987, confirmed the mediator intended to issue a fresh invitation to the two sides "within a period of eight days" but could not give a precise date.
Mr Micheletti on Sunday held out the possibility of an amnesty for Mr Zelaya if he returns home quietly and faces justice, but the ousted president dismissed the gesture. "I don't accept either trials or amnesty. I won't accept a pardon from anyone because I have not sinned," Mr Zelaya said in Managua.
Reuters