By Patrick Markey
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The United States on Monday condemned violence against protesters in Honduras and called for President Manuel Zelaya's reinstatement as the Central American country faced growing isolation over last week's coup.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to meet Zelaya in Washington on Tuesday, a U.S. official said, in a sign the Obama administration -- which has already condemned his ouster -- wants to provide visible support. The official gave no other details of the planned meeting.
Honduras' interim authorities foiled Zelaya's attempt to force the issue and return home on Sunday, preventing his small, private jet from landing in the capital. Zelaya ended up flying to El Salvador.
At least one person was killed and two people were badly wounded in clashes with troops after thousands of pro-Zelaya demonstrators marched to meet him at the airport in Tegucigalpa and broke through fencing near the runaway.
It was the first death in protests since the June 28 coup in the impoverished coffee and textile exporting country.
"We deplore the use of force against demonstrators in Tegucigalpa in recent days and once again call upon the de facto regime and all actors in Honduras to refrain from all acts of violence," said U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly in Washington.
The United States urged a "peaceful, constitutional and lasting solution to the serious divisions in that country through dialogue," he said.
Asked what that meant, Kelly said: "In the most immediate instance it means the return of the democratically elected president to Tegucigalpa."
Zelaya, a leftist whose term was due to end in 2010, was flown into exile by the military in Central America's first coup since the Cold War. His has ouster sparked wide international condemnation, especially among Zelaya's leftist Latin American allies, and is testing regional diplomacy.
Honduras' interim government has insisted Zelaya's removal was a constitutional transition that, while carried out by the army, was supported by the country's Supreme Court. The government, which was installed by Congress soon after the coup, argues that Zelaya had illegally tried to organise a vote on changing presidential term limits.
United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon urged the Organisation of American States on Monday to take the lead role in restoring constitutional order in Honduras. The OAS late Saturday took the rare step of suspending Honduras for its refusal to reinstate Zelaya.
WINDOW FOR TALKS
A commission of Honduran private sector representatives planned to fly to Washington on Monday to seek guarantees on trade and make the case for the interim government, which cannot officially hold talks with the U.S. administration.
The caretaker government of Roberto Micheletti has told the OAS that it wants to start talks to solve the crisis, a senior U.S. official said on Sunday. He called the situation in Honduras "very fluid and challenging."
But Micheletti's government has so far maintained its position that talks cannot include the restoration of Zelaya. The government has said it plans to stay on until elections previously scheduled for November, but would consider early elections.
Zelaya, a businessman who edged to the left after he took office in 2006, upset the country's traditional ruling elites, including members of his own Liberal Party, by seeking changes to presidential term limits and by establishing closer ties with Venezuela's socialist President Hugo Chavez.
AID AND LOANS
Washington has held off on issuing a legal determination of the ouster as a coup -- a definition that would force a cut-off of U.S. aid to the country, the third poorest in the hemisphere after Haiti and Nicaragua.
"We are still in the ongoing process of determining whether the law applies but we're not inclined to make a statutory decision while diplomatic initiatives are ongoing," Kelly said on Monday.
The State Department had requested $68.2 million in aid for the fiscal year 2010, an increase from $43.2 million in the current year, covering development aid, funds for U.S. arms as well as military training and counter narcotics aid.
The OAS suspension will also complicate Honduras' access to multilateral loans. The Inter-American Development Bank -- one of the region's top multilateral lenders -- has already put a hold on all new loans to Honduras after the military coup.
(Additional reporting by Arshad Mohammed in Washington, Editing by Frances Kerry)
