WRAPUP 4-Zelaya plans return to Honduras if talks fail -wife

(For a TAKE A LOOK on Honduras, click on [ID:nN28343997])

* Wife says Zelaya will seek to return home if talks fail

* Mediator Arias faces tough task to reconcile positions

* Pro-Zelaya protesters block Tegucigalpa highway (Updates with interview with Zelaya's wife, Xiomara)

By Simon Gardner

TEGUCIGALPA, July 17 (Reuters) - Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya will seek to openly return to his country if mediation talks on Saturday fail to reinstate him, his wife said on the eve of the discussions in Costa Rica.

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias is due to host the talks between delegations representing Zelaya, toppled in a June 28 coup, and the interim government led by Roberto Micheletti, who was installed by Honduras' Congress after the ouster.

"Time runs out tomorrow," Zelaya's wife, Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, told Reuters in an interview Friday in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa. "He has to come back to the country. He has to come publicly." [ID:nN17151439]

She gave no clear indication of the timing of his return, but said he would not negotiate on his demand to be reinstated. Zelaya had given an ultimatum that either the Costa Rica talks restored him to office or he would consider them failed.