Honduras isolated over Zelaya ouster

By Mica Rosenberg

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras came under pressure on Monday to reinstate ousted President Manuel Zelaya as many Latin American leaders agreed to withdraw envoys, Washington said the ouster was illegal and protesters took to the streets.

Police in the Honduran capital fired tear gas at stone-throwing supporters of Zelaya, who was toppled in an army coup on Sunday. They arrested about two dozen people.

Some 1,500 protesters, some of them masked and carrying sticks, taunted solders and burnt tires just outside the gates of the presidential palace in a face-off with security forces.

Zelaya, a leftist, was detained and sent into exile in a dispute over his push to extend presidential terms. The coup is Central America's biggest political crisis in decades.

Left-wing Latin American leaders led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced at a meeting in Managua, capital of neighbouring Nicaragua, that they would withdraw their ambassadors from Honduras in protest at the coup.

Leaders from Central America, also meeting in Managua, followed suit soon after, a senior diplomatic source said.

In Washington, President Barack Obama said it would be a "terrible precedent" to move back into an era of military coups, and added the ouster was "not legal." The coup has presented Obama with a test as he seeks to mend the battered U.S. image in Latin America.

"We are very clear about the fact that President Zelaya is the democratically-elected president, Obama said, adding Washington would work with the Organisation of American States and other international institutions "to see if we can resolve this in a peaceful way."