By Sean Mattson
TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and de facto rulers in power since a June coup returned to the negotiating table on Thursday under U.S. pressure, with a pro-Zelaya radio station saying a deal may be close.
But Zelaya told the station, Radio Globo, it was too soon to know what the caretaker government's position would be on the key issue of whether he can be temporarily reinstated.
"We are at the same point as where we started, with 95 percent agreed on," Zelaya said. "There is absolutely no approval yet of anything."
Zelaya appealed for calm after some protesters were hurt in protests backing the leftist, who was toppled in a coup on June 28 and exiled. He snuck back into the country last month.
A team led by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Tom Shannon and Dan Restrepo, Washington's special assistant for Western Hemisphere affairs, is in Tegucigalpa for a last-ditch effort to broker a resolution.
Zelaya, holed up in the Brazilian Embassy surrounded by troops, pulled out of the most recent talks last week.
"Time is running out. We only have a month. We need an agreement as soon as possible," Shannon said after the U.S. officials met with both sides.
Radio Globo said a deal, including an agreement on letting Zelaya serve the end of his term to January, was close to completion and awaiting approval by the country's Congress.
Zelaya adviser Rasel Tome said the talks were advancing. "We are in the course, in the moments of history, hoping (an accord) will be signed. We are going well," he told Reuters.
Vilma Morales, an envoy for de facto leader Roberto Micheletti, noted the Supreme Court -- which ordered the coup -- would also need to be consulted on any accord.
REINSTATEMENT STILL A THORN
The coffee-producing Central American country has been diplomatically isolated since Zelaya was rousted at dawn by soldiers and flown to exile on a military plane.
He had angered many in Honduras by warming up to socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Critics also alleged he was seeking backing to extend presidential term limits, something he denies.
Critics of Micheletti, who was appointed by Congress after the coup, say he wants to stay in power until a presidential election scheduled for November 29.
In a sign the United States is stepping up its involvement, Shannon sat in on Thursday's talks and said his delegation would stay an extra day to help Hondurans broker a deal.
As negotiators met behind closed doors, Micheletti repeated his hard-line stance against Zelaya's return, telling reporters, "I don't think reinstatement is a possibility."
Police in riot gear and firing tear gas broke up a march by hundreds of pro-Zelaya protesters near the hotel where the talks were being held, Reuters witnesses said. Television images showed police hitting a man with a stick and the Red Cross said five demonstrators had minor injuries.
Human rights groups have documented major abuses by the de facto government and say free and fair elections will be impossible after Micheletti curbed civil liberties and temporarily shut opposition news outlets last month.
U.S. President Barack Obama has been criticized for leaving Latin American governments and the Organisation of American States to take the lead in resolving the crisis. Last week's collapse of talks prompted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to dispatch the U.S. delegation.
Micheletti, whose leadership is not recognized abroad, has lodged legal proceedings against Brazil at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. He wants Brazil ordered to stop sheltering Zelaya in its embassy.
Brazil disputed the move, saying an illegitimate government was not eligible to file a lawsuit with the court.
(Additional reporting by Deborah Charles in Washington, Raymond Colitt in Brasilia, Javier Lopez de Lerida and Gustavo Palencia in Tegucigalpa; Writing by Mica Rosenberg; Editing by Catherine Bremer and Peter Cooney)
