Zelaya and interim leader Roberto Micheletti are Thursday due to start two days of talks to be mediated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, at his home in San Jose.

"It seems to me that there is willingness on both sides to seek a negotiated settlement through diplomacy, through dialogue," Arias said.

The United States has been a prime mover in trying to resolve the political impasse triggered when Honduran troops, backed by a court order, roused Zelaya from his bed on June 28 and whisked him out of the country.

The coup -- the first in years in Latin America -- triggered global alarm and the 34-member Organization of American States expelled Honduras from its regional grouping.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has backed the Costa Rican mediation after meeting with Zelaya in Washington, but stopped short of demanding he be reinstated as urged by the White House.

"There needs to be a specific mediator and, to that end, we are supporting the efforts of President Arias of Costa Rica to serve in this important role," Clinton told reporters.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly again welcomed the Costa Rican initiative Wednesday and said: "We hope through this mechanism, there will be a peaceful resolution of this conflict."

Supporters of both Zelaya and the coup leaders were planning to take to the streets of the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, again on Wednesday, after days of violence which has rocked this Central American nation of some seven million people.

"We will remain mobilized in anticipation of what happens in San Jose," one of the protest leaders Rafael Alegria told AFP.

"We are planning a major mobilization on Friday when we hope and know the outcome of the talks," he added.

The Honduran head of the Catholic Church, Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez, meanwhile blamed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for stirring up trouble.

"Let him leave us alone, and get on with running his own country," Rodriguez said in a statement published in two Honduran dailies.

He has already urged Zelaya not to try to return in order to avoid a "bloodbath."

As they prepared for their talks though, both Zelaya and Micheletti -- sworn in by Congress just hours after the coup -- insisted they were not planning to hold negotiations.

"We're not going to negotiate, we're going to talk," Micheletti told a news conference.

Zelaya said the meeting was not to negotiate, but to plan "the exit of the coup leaders."

But Zelaya said he would agree to advance elections due in November if he was returned to power.

And on Wednesday he hit out at Honduran authorities for refusing to allow his chief of staff Enrique Flores to leave the country to attend the talks, saying it was a bid to try to force his hand.

The Honduran interim leaders insist they took power in a "constitutional succession," not a coup, and accuse Zelaya of a string of crimes, including corruption and failing to implement laws.

But on Tuesday they hinted for the first time at a possible exit to the crisis, as a Supreme Court spokesman said Zelaya could return if Congress grants him amnesty.

Zelaya had tried to return on Sunday, but the army prevented his plane from landing in the capital Tegucigalpa during violent protests in which two people were killed.

Night curfews -- which suspend some freedoms guaranteed by the constitution -- and media blackouts continue to heighten tensions in one of Latin America's poorest countries.

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