Supporters of the coup and interim government took to the streets of the capital on Tuesday [AFP]

Jose Miguel Insulza, the OAS secretary-general, said on Wednesday he had delivered the "ultimatum" following a crisis meeting of the group of 35 independent states of the Americas.

Speaking from the OAS headquarters in Washington DC, he said: "We need to show clearly that military coups will not be accepted.

"If within 72 hours the reinstatement doesn't happen, the assembly ... will meet again to suspend Honduras."

'Usurpers' barbarity'

The move came hours after the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for the "immediate and unconditional" return of Manuel Zelaya to the Honduran presidency, two days after he was forced into exile in Costa Rica.

The resolution backed condemnations by the OAS and other regional groups of what Zelaya described as "the barbarity that a small group of usurpers sought to inflict upon our country".

Christina Fernandez, Argentina's president, and Insulza are set to accompany Zelaya during his planned return to Honduras on Thursday in a show of support.

The adoption of the General Assembly resolution came as supporters of both the sacked president and his interim replacement demonstrated in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital.

Opposing protests

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

Micheletti, the former parliamentary speaker from the same Liberal party as Zelaya, vowed not to resign as interim president and said only an armed invasion would restore his ousted predecessor.

"No one can make me resign," he said.

"[Zelaya] can no longer return to the presidency of the republic unless a president from another Latin American country comes and imposes him using guns."

"I was appointed by congress, which represents the Honduran people. Nobody can make me resign unless I break the laws of the country," he told the Associated Press news agency.

'Act of democracy'

Micheletti has insisted that Zelaya was not ousted through a coup but through "a completely legal process as set out in our laws", calling the move an "act of democracy".

Zelaya was removed from power as he was about to press ahead with a non-binding referendum on constitutional change on Sunday that congress and the courts had declared illegal, accusing him of trying to change the charter so he could run for a second term in office.

Before the UN General Assembly's condemnation of the coup, the overthrow of Zelaya was roundly criticised by Latin American countries and the United States.

Members of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (Alba), which includes Venezuela and Bolivia, said on Monday that they would withdraw their ambassadors from Honduras.

Barack Obama, the US president, also criticised the coup.

"We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the democratically elected president there," Obama said.

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

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