Pro-Zelaya protests grip Honduras ahead of talks

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Supporters of ousted President Manuel Zelaya blocked commercial highways in Honduras, including two into the capital, in protests on Thursday demanding his reinstatement ahead of weekend mediation talks.

The demonstrations by hundreds of pro-Zelaya protesters went ahead as Costa Rican President Oscar Arias prepared to host talks on Saturday with the rival sides in the political crisis triggered by the June 28 coup that toppled Zelaya.

Watched by armed soldiers and riot police, the protesters shut off the northern and southern entrances to the hill-ringed capital Tegucigalpa, backing up trucks and other vehicles for miles (km) in both directions.

Police also reported protest roadblocks at Comayagua in the centre of the country, and at Copan in the west, on routes that carry exports and imports to and from neighboring El Salvador.

Arias, who is mediating in Central America's worst crisis since the Cold War, is due to host talks between envoys representing Zelaya, and Roberto Micheletti, the interim president installed by Honduras' Congress after the coup. After an inconclusive initial round last week, the two sides are deadlocked.

Zelaya is demanding that Micheletti comply with international calls for his immediate reinstatement. But Micheletti, who says the army lawfully removed Zelaya because he violated the constitution by seeking to lift limits on presidential terms, has ruled out Zelaya's return to office.

Arias told local radio in Costa Rica on Thursday he would try to broker a compromise, such as the formation of a national reconciliation government between the sides, or an amnesty.

CURFEW RESTORED

The coup and impasse in Honduras has posed a foreign policy test for U.S. President Barack Obama, who has sought to improve ties with Latin America. He has quickly condemned Zelaya's ouster as illegal but faces calls from Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez, a vocal ally of Zelaya, to increase pressure on Micheletti to restore the deposed president.

To counter renewed protests by Zelaya's backers, Micheletti's administration stepped up security across the country and reimposed a night curfew late on Wednesday.

At the northern access route into Tegucigalpa, hundreds of protesters, many in red T-shirts and scarves and some wearing the cowboy hats common in rural Honduras, blocked the highway with rocks, shouting slogans calling for Zelaya's return.

"If we have to paralyse the country, we will," said Yadira Marroquin, 44, a hospital worker.

Juan Barahona, leader of the National Front for Resistance Against the Coup which is campaigning for Zelaya's return, said earlier his supporters would block major highways "to strike at the economy of the coup-supporting businessmen."

Hector Ivan Mejia, spokesman for the Security Ministry of the interim administration, said security was being increased at strategic points across the country, an exporter of bananas, coffee and textiles.

The country's coffee crop is largely over, with the bulk of exports shipped. The next harvest begins in October.

Since the coup last month, supporters of Zelaya have staged almost daily protests calling for his return but have not seriously threatened the interim government.

CHAVEZ SAYS FEARS "CIVIL WAR"

Micheletti has repeated an offer to quit to promote a peaceful deal, but only if Zelaya is not returned to office.

Foreign governments worry that if Saturday's mediation talks in Costa Rica fail, the Honduran crisis could escalate.

"I hope God doesn't let this end up developing into a civil war, which could spill out across Central America," said Chavez, who is well known for his incendiary rhetoric. He spoke in Bolivia at a meeting of leftist Latin American presidents.

The United States called for restraint.

"We support a peaceful negotiated resolution and urge other countries to play a positive role in achieving that and to refrain from any actions that could lead to violence," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Washington.

Venezuela's Chavez, long a vociferous foe of the United States, repeated an allegation -- which Washington has denied -- that the U.S. authorities had a hand in the coup.

"The Honduran army wouldn't have gone forward without the approval of the (U.S.) State Department," he said. "I don't think they told Obama, but there's an empire behind Obama. Obama is Obama, the empire is the empire," he added, using his habitual term for the United States.

Micheletti has accused Chavez of meddling in Honduras and of influencing Zelaya with his populist brand of socialism.

The Organisation of American States, which suspended Honduras from membership on July 4, said on Wednesday it would keep up pressure on the coup leaders, while backing dialogue.

Zelaya, who says the coup was a power grab by rich political elites who oppose him, has said Saturday's talks are the last chance for the interim government to reinstate him immediately, before he pursues other strategies.

Arias said neither Zelaya nor Micheletti had confirmed they would attend Saturday's talks. "I'm hoping to make progress but I'm not letting my hopes get too high," he said.

(Additional reporting by Juana Casas, Esteban Israel in Tegucigalpa, Terry Wade in La Paz; John McPhaul in San Jose; Paul Eckert in Washington; writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Frances Kerry)

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