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Roberto Micheletti: I'll resign if Zelaya resigns
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-08-29 16:23

TEGUCIGALPA: De facto Honduran President Roberto Micheletti said on Friday that he would resign and back the return of ousted President Manuel Zelaya to the country on condition Zelaya also renounces the presidency.

"If Mr. Zelaya stops being so stubborn and resigns, I can also do it (resign) for the peace of the country," Micheletti told local radio HRN after meeting with legislators from Honduras' de facto ruling party, the Liberal Party.

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Congress Speaker Alfredo Saavedra said he appreciated Micheletti's decision "to seek dialogue, the only option to lead us to peace."

Meanwhile, about 1,000 Zelaya supporters marched in a poor neighborhood of the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, to demand his return to power, two months after the coup that sent Zelaya into exile.

A Honduran negotiation delegation visited the United States Wednesday to seek a solution to the crisis. The delegation presented Micheletti's proposal to the Washington-based Organization of American States (OAS) that both Micheletti and Zelaya resign to enable a third person to serve out the remainder of Zelaya's constitutional term, which ends in January.

However, OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza warned there would be no agreement to end Honduras' crisis unless Zelaya returns to the presidency.

A senior US State Department official also met Friday with representatives of the Micheletti administration, one day after the US government said it would soon announce new actions to press for Zelaya's reinstatement.

Micheletti had made a similar offer to a delegation of OAS foreign ministers visiting the country earlier this week. The delegation failed in its attempt to persuade the de facto government to sign the San Jose Agreement and did not immediately respond to Micheletti's offer.

The San Jose Agreement, proposed by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, demands that Zelaya be allowed to return to power. The proposal, recognized by the OAS and the United States as the best solution to the Honduran crisis, also includes a reconciliatory government, a general election and political amnesty.

Zelaya has said he will accept the agreement but Micheletti has refused.