WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The need for international recognition of upcoming elections drove the de facto rulers of Honduras to agree with ousted President Manuel Zelaya to end a four-month stalemate, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.
Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Tom Shannon said the deal negotiated on Thursday night was a "huge accomplishment" for Honduras and for democracy in Latin America, and a triumph of dialogue over violence.
"The agreement ... effectively opens a pathway to resolve Honduras' current political crisis and allow the international community to support the Honduran elections on November 29," he told reporters in Washington.
Shannon, who helped broker the deal in Tegucigalpa, said the de facto government recognized that Honduras had to go to elections with the support of the international community because the absence of recognition would deepen the political crisis and make relations with the outside world more problematic.
Honduras has been diplomatically isolated since Zelaya was ousted by soldiers on June 28 and flown into exile. He had angered many in Honduras by becoming an ally of socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Critics also accused him of seeking to extend presidential term limits, a claim he denies.
Implementation of the political agreement, which calls for the formation of a national unity government and a committee to verify that the elections are fair and transparent, will be complicated, Shannon said.
The thorniest question will be the restitution of Zelaya to serve out the rest of his term ending in January with the handover to a newly elected president.
Under the agreement, the issue has been left up to the Honduran Congress to determine "when, if and how" Zelaya returns to office, Shannon said.
"That is going to be the issue that is most provocative internally and probably where we in the international community are going to have to pay the closest attention," he said.
Shannon said it was "imperative for Congress to move quickly" on Zelaya's situation.
The U.S. government also wants to see Zelaya freely abandon the Brazilian embassy, where he has been holed up since returning secretly from exile last month, Shannon said.
"It is our view that President Zelaya's status should be normalized in some fashion and the de facto regime should end its harassment of the Brazilian embassy," he said.
(Reporting by Anthony Boadle, editing by Will Dunham)
