EXCLUSIVE-UPDATE 3-Honduras could offer ousted Zelaya amnesty

By Simon Gardner and Gustavo Palencia

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduran interim leader Roberto Micheletti said on Sunday ousted president Manuel Zelaya would not be allowed to return to power under any circumstances but could be granted an amnesty if he comes home quietly to face justice.

Micheletti's overture was the first conciliatory offer from the interim authorities to try to solve the worst crisis in Central America since the Cold War, although Zelaya insists on being reinstated and has vowed to return and defy the interim government.

"If he comes peacefully first to appear before the authorities ... I don't have any problem (with an amnesty for him)," Micheletti told Reuters in an exclusive interview at the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa in a room guarded by five heavily-armed soldiers.

"We have to talk to the Supreme Court and consult with the State Attorney of the Republic to see what possibilities there are of that nature," he added. "But I think that we need to seek peace, and that is part of it."

However the interim president, a centrist veteran of Zelaya's Liberal Party who was installed by Honduras' Congress after the June 28 military coup that deposed Zelaya, repeated his position that Zelaya would not be reinstated as president "under any conditions."

This signalled Micheletti's continuing defiance of international condemnation of the coup and calls from the Organisation of American States, the United States and the United Nations General Assembly for Zelaya to be restored to office.

Honduras' Congress and Supreme Court ordered the army to remove Zelaya last month, arguing he had violated the country's constitution by attempting to lift presidential term limits.

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