Honduras leader may allow Zelaya amnesty, curfew off

By Gustavo Palencia and Daniel Trotta

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Honduras' interim president held out the possibility of an amnesty for ousted President Manuel Zelaya on Sunday after the lifting of a curfew that had been imposed on the country since the June 28 coup.

Caretaker President Roberto Micheletti, sworn in hours after the armed forces removed Zelaya from power and expelled him to Costa Rica, held firm in a Reuters interview to his position that Zelaya could not return to power under any circumstances.

No foreign government has recognized Micheletti as president and the United States and the Organization of American States have called for Zelaya to be restored.

Micheletti's interim government is holding talks with Zelaya's representatives through the mediation of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, but the talks have resulted in little apparent progress, aside from an agreement to keep talking.

"If he (Zelaya) comes peacefully first to appear before the authorities ... I don't have any problem (with an amnesty for him)," Micheletti told Reuters in an interview at the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa.

Micheletti said Zelaya could not return to power "under any conditions" because he contravened the constitution by seeking to illegally extend his rule through the lifting of presidential term limits.

Zelaya, a logging magnate elected in 2005 who was due to leave office in 2010, has said only his restoration to office can solve Honduras' political crisis.

The ousted president, now traveling the Americas to shore up his support, ran afoul of his political base and ruling elites in the conservative country by allying himself with Venezuela's firebrand leftist president, Hugo Chavez.