OAS chief tells Honduras to let Zelaya go back

By Enrique Andres Pretel

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The Organisation of American States tried to convince Honduras on Friday to restore ousted President Manuel Zelaya, but it hit a wall as the country's Supreme Court warned the leftist would be arrested if he came home.

OAS head Jose Miguel Insulza met judicial officials and clergy in Honduras to try to reverse a military coup last weekend that drove Zelaya from office. He warned the Central American country faces diplomatic sanction from the Western Hemisphere.

Backed by U.S. President Barack Obama and Latin American leaders, the Washington-based OAS has given the interim rulers of Honduras until Saturday to bring back Zelaya or be suspended from the 34-member group.

The new Honduran administration has so far opposed any attempt to bring back Zelaya, who was ousted in a dispute over presidential term limits, sparking Central America's biggest political crisis since the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989.

Zelaya has said he will try to return to Honduras on Sunday. In Buenos Aires, an Argentine government source said on Saturday that President Cristina Fernandez would travel with him, along with Insulza, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa and Miguel D'Escoto, president of the U.N. General Assembly.

The group had originally planned the return trip on Thursday, but that was put off to allow the OAS time to work on a solution. The OAS is due to meet again in Washington on Saturday.

World bodies and governments from Washington and Brussels to Zelaya's left-wing allies in the region have condemned his ouster and demanded he be restored to power. Zelaya, who took office in 2006, had been due to leave power in early 2010.

Insulza, the former Chilean foreign minister, was told firmly by the head of the Honduran Supreme Court that Zelaya would be arrested if he returns home.