"Either the coup is reversed or generalized violence is coming," Zelaya warned the interim government headed by Roberto Micheletti in an interview Friday with Nicaragua's state-owned Channel 4 TV.

"The people have the right to protest, to insurrection. This is the case of the Honduran people, which is being brutally repressed," he said.

Soon after, around 100 Honduran men belonging to Zelaya's "popular army" began training exercises in a camp on the Nicaraguan side of the border with Honduras, an AFP journalist witnessed.

The recruits, mostly young men and all unarmed, exercised, marched, and carried out maneuvers under the direction of leaders who said they were Honduran army veterans.

According to the leaders, other similar camps had been set up along the border.

In Havana, meanwhile, Cuba's National Assembly on Saturday urged the United States to "cease its intervention" in Honduras in favor of the group that outsted the elected president.

Zelaya announced Wednesday that -- with permission from leftist Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega -- he would organize his own army based on the more than 300 Honduran supporters that gathered at his base at the border town of Ocotal, 226 kilometers (140 miles) north of the Nicaraguan capital Managua.

This will be "the popular militia that will guard the president upon his return," Zelaya said.

Ortega, speaking Friday in Managua at an event marking the 30th anniversary of the creation of Nicaragua's air force, warned that his forces were prepared if anyone -- like the Honduran regime -- was thinking of attacking.

"If you want peace, prepare for war," Ortega said. "Precisely to avoid war we have to prepare for whoever thinks they can come take a stroll in Nicaragua."

Ortega said that "it made no sense to launch any aggression against Nicaragua" because it has a well trained army ready to defend the country.

He also called on the Honduran military to "not be carried away" by the policies of the civilians that ousted Zelaya, and urged them to help find a solution to the crisis.

In Tegucigalpa, Micheletti on Friday insisted that "under no circumstances" would Zelaya return to office, sinking what little hopes remained that a peace plan brokered by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias could end the deadlock.

Zelaya, who was elected as a moderate conservative and took a sharp turn to the left while in office, was overthrown in a military-backed coup on June 28 and bundled out of the country.

Under the plan Zelaya would complete his term as president in a national unity government, but would be forced to leave power within months, as scheduled.

The conflict has increasingly become an ideological battle between the Central American country's small socially conservative, business-oriented community and the more numerous poor, many of whom are Zelaya supporters.

A Zelaya supporter, teacher Roger Vallejo, 38, who was shot in a demonstration in Tegucigalpa this week, died from his injuries, authorities said Saturday.

Zelaya's wife Xiomara Castro -- who returned to the capital after police for days prevented her from meeting her husband at Nicaraguan border -- joined the protest.

And a Honduran court issued arrest warrants for Zelaya on charges of falsifying public documents, fraud and abuse of power. Zelaya already faces a string of charges that include treason.

In Washington, the Organization of American States (OAS) put off without explanation a planned Friday meeting on the Honduran crisis until next week.

The OAS suspended Honduras on July 5 following the coup, and OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza warned that his group could take additional measures against the Micheletti regime.

The United States this week canceled diplomatic visas for four members of the interim government, and Micheletti on Friday threatened to retaliate by canceling visas of US diplomats.

In Costa Rica, Arias is scheduled to meet Sunday with Enrique Iglesias, the the long-time former head of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and current senior official with the Ibero-American Cooperation Secretariat to discuss Honduras, an official in San Jose told AFP.

Meanwhile Zelaya is scheduled to meet travel to Mexico City on Tuesday to meet with President Felipe Calderon, the Mexican government said.

earlier related report
Interim Honduran leader says Zelaya will not return to power
Honduran interim leader Roberto Micheletti insisted Friday there would be no return to power of ousted President Manuel Zelaya -- a key plank of proposals to end the crisis.

Micheletti said that "under no circumstances" would Zelaya return to office, scuppering what little hopes remained that a Costa Rican-brokered peace plan can end the deadlock prompted by Zelaya's ouster five weeks ago.

Zelaya, who was elected as a moderate conservative and took a sharp turn to the left while in office, was overthrown in a military-backed coup on June 28 and bundled out of the country.

Under the plan Zelaya would complete his term as president in a national unity government, but would be forced to leave power within months, as scheduled.

Micheletti's opposition to the plan has deepened the country's international isolation since the coup, which was widely condemned by members of the Organization of American States.

In Washington, the OAS delayed two meetings on the Honduran crisis scheduled to take place on Friday.

But as diplomatic efforts to end the standoff have run into the sand, tensions in the region have continued to escalate.

Zelaya and a group of supporters are camped on Nicaragua's border with Honduras, threatening to return home despite warnings the elected president would be arrested.

On Friday, another band of Zelaya supporters took to the streets of the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa, in what have become daily protests punctuated by clashes with the security forces.

The conflict has increasingly become a pitched ideological battle between the mountainous Central American country's small conservative business-oriented community and the more numerous poor, were Zelaya draws much of his support.

Micheletti has hit out at the international community, most notably the United States, charging that having Washington's ambassador meet with Zelaya was interfering in Honduran domestic affairs.

"If you are sure that has taken place, that (the ambassador) has met with Zelaya, it is meddling," Micheletti said, reacting to a meeting between US Ambassador Hugo Llorens and Zelaya in Managua on Thursday.

"The ambassador is making a serious mistake if he has done that," Micheletti said. "We don't want any country interfering in Honduras' affairs."

Micheletti was quick to insist he was not trying to stay in power.

"If there is a settlement calling on me to step aside, I will be pleased to do so. But Zelaya should not be coming back to Honduras, much less as its ruler," Micheletti said.

"If (Zelaya) comes down from the mountain (on the Nicaragua-Honduras border) where he is playing guerrilla, and turns up here, I will be glad to let a third party take over to end the crisis. I want peace in my country," Micheletti said.

Monday, Zelaya vowed to remain all week in Nicaragua just steps away from his homeland, hoping to return to power at some unspecified time.

The United States urged Zelaya and those who toppled him to show restraint after his second attempt to return home last Friday, as Costa Rica pursued mediation efforts to end the standoff.

The interim leaders who took control after the army expelled the cowboy-hatted leader have welcomed parts of the plan but rejected Zelaya's return as president, as has the military.

The exiled president has said the talks have failed.

Zelaya this week ruled out further negotiations and said he would neither travel to Washington nor to a regional summit in Costa Rica this week.

Cuba slammed the United States Friday, charging President Barack Obama's administration was following in the footsteps of George W. Bush with Latin America.

While Obama sought to break with Bush's record at a regional summit in April, the Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma said: "his government's latest steps show that his government is perpetuating the interfering policies of his predecessor."

"The coup d'etat in Honduras proves it. Because Washington has had a two-track policy which in practice is allowing those who overthrew the government to buy time," Granma said.

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