Zelaya has said it is the international community's responsibility to ensure his reinstatement [AFP]

Jose Miguel Insulza intends to push on Friday for Zelaya to be restored to power ahead of a Saturday deadline given to Honduras by the OAS, the alliance of 35 US-backed Latin American countries.

"I cannot say I'm confident, I will do everything I can, but I think it will be very hard to turn things around in a couple of days," Insulza said.

The OAS has threatened to expel Honduras from the regional grouping if it fails to meet its deadline.

Insulza said he wants to meet the leaders of the supreme court and congress, but would not talk to members of the new military-backed government as his organisation does not recognise it.

"We are not going to Honduras to negotiate, we are going to Honduras to ask them to change what they have been doing now, and find ways in which we can return to normalcy," he said at a meeting in Guyana.

Mixed messages

The interim government has resisted calls to restore Zelaya as president, but has sent mixed messages about using the ballot box to resolve the crisis.

Roberto Micheletti, the interim president, said on Thursday that he had "no objection" to bringing forward November presidential elections.

But when pressed for details, Micheletti said that congress would have to decide on the early polls and Zelaya could not sit in the president's seat again because it would go against Honduran law.

Zelaya, meanwhile, has vowed to return to Honduras on Saturday, despite warnings he will be arrested.

He has said it was the responsibility of the international community to ensure he was reinstated.

At a news conference in Panama City, Zelaya urged his supporters to keep demonstrating.

"I call on the people to keep up the banners. The street is ours. They've taken the institutions away from us, but the street belongs to the people," he said.

Thousands of Zelaya supporters on Thursday staged their largest demonstration since Sunday's coup when they marched from a military base to a UN office.

Police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators, but there were no reports of injuries or arrests.

An equal number of Micheletti backers marched in San Pedro Sula, the country's second largest city.

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