Interim leaders in Honduras who backed the 28 June ouster of President Manuel Zelaya on Tuesday broke off diplomatic ties with Argentina, which has made a strong push to return the deposed leader.

The de facto leaders said they were breaking off relations on the basis of "strict reciprocity" after Argentina last week expelled the Honduran ambassador over her support for the military coup.

Diplomatic relations would now pass through the Israeli embassy in Argentina, they said in a statement.

Argentina's diplomatic chief responded in Mexico that his country's diplomats had no plans to leave their embassy in Honduras.

"Argentina's diplomatic staff is in Tegucigalpa and they don't have a (leaving) date at all," Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana said.

The interim Honduran leadership headed by Roberto Micheletti has already told Venezuela's envoys to leave, but they have refused.

Argentina last Thursday expelled the Honduran ambassador to Buenos Aires, Carmen Eleonora Ortez Williams, and President Cristina Kirchner has been among the staunchest defenders of Zelaya's right to return to power.

Taiana — part of a delegation from the Organisation of American States (OAS) due to travel shortly to Honduras — earlier told AFP that other countries should do more to help resolve the political crisis in the impoverished Central American country.

Dozens of Hondurans meanwhile met with members of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, who are on a mission to investigate alleged rights violations by the interim government.

AFP

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