TEGUCIGALPA: Honduran de facto leader Roberto Micheletti called on Sunday for ousted President Manuel Zelaya to rejoin dialogue to form a unity government, though the deposed leader quickly responded by declaring the offer a "non-starter".
"The government of Honduras reiterates its readiness to proceed with the implementation of the agreement and urges the other side to return to the dialogue framework to enable the formation of a government of national unity and reconciliation," Micheletti said through a spokesman.
Zelaya, ousted in a coup in June, however later told Radio Globo that the deal was a "non-starter" because Micheletti had failed to reinstate him and his ministers.
The US-brokered deal to end the nation's four-month crisis collapsed last week when Zelaya pulled out, after Micheletti announced a new "unity" government without his participation.
Presidential elections due on November 29 are in jeopardy as Zelaya called for his supporters to boycott them and return to the streets of the polarised nation.
Zelaya, still holed up in the Brazilian embassy after making a surprise return to the capital in September, told AFP earlier that there was no point continuing with negotiations because "the agreements have been constantly violated".
The accord had given Zelaya and Micheletti's camps until midnight last Thursday to set up a reconciliation government to represent both sides.
Although it did not require that Zelaya be reinstated, the pact said that decision should be left to Congress, without setting a deadline for the vote, which has not yet taken place.
Shortly before the deadline, Micheletti announced a unity government without including Zelaya ministers.
The ousted leader had refused to present nominees for the posts unless he was first reinstated to "reverse the coup" of June 28.
- AFP/so