Zelaya has said that he will return to Honduras at the weekend [EPA

Congress passed laws on Wednesday which will allow police to arrest people in their own homes without a warrant during a nightly curfew that has been in place since Manuel Zelaya was ousted.

The move is in defiance of increasing pressure on Honduras to reinstate Zelaya to the presidency and came hours after Zelaya said he would return home at the weekend.

The Organisation of American States (OAS) had earlier given Honduras a 72-hour deadline to restore Zelaya to the presidency or face expulsion from the 35-nation body.

"We will wait 72 hours in order to continue with this process [to return to Honduras]," in light of the OAS decision, Zelaya said in Panama City, where he had travelled to attend the inauguration of the new Panamanian president.

"My return to Honduras is scheduled for the weekend," he said without specifying an exact day. He had said a day earlier that he planned to return to Honduras on Thursday.

Zelaya is set to be accompanied home by Jose Miguel Insulza, the OAS secretary general, the presidents of Argentina and Ecuador, and Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, the head of the UN General Assembly.

Arrest warning

Micheletti, centre, has refused to stand down as interim president [AFP]

But Roberto Micheletti, the military-backed interim president, has vowed not to resign, saying that only an armed invasion would restore his ousted predecessor. \

Micheletti has also warned that Zelaya will be arrested should he return, regardless of who is travelling with him.

Insulza said on Wednesday that he had delivered an "ultimatum" to Honduras after an emergency meeting of the OAS.

"If within 72 hours the reinstatement doesn't happen, the assembly ... will meet again to suspend Honduras," he said, from the OAS headquarters in Washington DC, the US capital.

The OAS condemnation of Honduras followed a resolution by the UN General Assembly calling for the "immediate and unconditional" return of Zelaya to the Honduran presidency.

Supporters of Zelaya and the coup leaders have demonstrated in the country's largest cities since the president was deposed and forced into exile.

'Drugs link'

Country facts

• Second largest country in Central America
• Population of 7.2 million
• Second poorest country in the region
• Economy forecast to grow less than two per cent this year
• Relies on money from Hondurans in the US for more than 25 per cent of its gross domestic product
• Former Spanish colony gained independence in 1821

Zelaya was removed from power as he was about to press ahead with a non-binding referendum on constitutional change on Sunday.

Congress and the courts had declared the move to hold the public vote illegal, accusing Zelaya of trying to change the charter to enable him to run for a second term in office.

Micheletti's government has also accused Zelaya of involvement in a drugs ring.

"We understand that last Friday a brief of investigation into Zelaya's alleged links to drugs was sent to the congress for the first time," Sanchez reported.

"We have been told that there were no previous investigations at congress about drug links to Zelaya. So, some analysts are saying that this investigation is all very suspicious," she added.

The US has not legally classified the removal of Zelaya as a coup, as this would automatically lead to the suspension of aid to Honduras, an impoverished nation of 7.2 million people.

But the Pentagon on Wednesday suspended all military activities with Tegucigalpa until further notice.

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