By Frank Jack Daniel
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Talks to resolve a post-coup crisis in Honduras hit a deadlock on Friday, as de facto leader Roberto Micheletti resisted international pressure to reinstate toppled President Manuel Zelaya.
Negotiators for Zelaya refused a proposal by Micheletti to have the Supreme Court rule on his return to office. The court supported his ouster and is unlikely to restore him to power.
Soldiers exiled Zelaya on June 28, but he secretly returned to Honduras last month and took refuge in the Brazilian embassy in the capital to avoid arrest.
Micheletti is hoping to stay at the helm until a new president is chosen in a November 29 election, although he may give in to the United States, the coffee-exporting nation's top trade partner, which wants Zelaya back before the vote.
"After waiting three long hours this morning, the proposal we received was totally unacceptable," said Zelaya envoy Victor Meza, still looking fresh after three days of intense talks.
Although Meza said the negotiations continued, the two sides have not substantially changed position in days. Zelaya is prepared to have his reinstatement made legal by Congress.
But Micheletti appears determined his former friend and political ally will not return to office despite signs of back channel pressure from the United States.
Vilma Morales, one of Micheletti's three envoys at the talks, earlier said they would work to win his approval for a deal, but said there was still disagreement.
"Even so, we are heading into the last phase and believe we will successfully get there," Morales, a former Supreme Court president, told reporters.
The negotiators repeatedly hurried out of the talks in an upscale hotel in the Honduran capital to consult with their leaders on Friday, while a small group of Zelaya supporters gathered outside, closely watched by riot police.
The coup brought back memories of Central America's ugly past of civil wars and state-backed violence in the 1980s. It is a foreign policy headache for U.S. President Barack Obama, who has promised better relations with Latin America.
Rights groups accuse the de facto government of major abuses, including deaths. The top United Nations rights body said it is sending a team to write a report on the situation.
Foreign donors have pulled millions of dollars of aid from Honduras since the coup, but Zelaya wants tougher sanctions aimed at destabilizing Micheletti.
Micheletti, a brusque political veteran named president shortly after the coup, got a boost this week when Honduras qualified for soccer's World Cup, giving the divided country a brief sense of unity.
Thousands of people accompanied the national team to the presidential palace on Thursday, the first big public gathering since Micheletti gave the police and army broad powers to suppress pro-Zelaya protests.
(Additional reporting by Magdalena Morales and Gustavo Palencia in Tegucigalpa and Susan Cornwell in Washington, editing by Anthony Boadle)
