Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya will not support the national unity government, which was due to take office on Thursday, unless Congress first reinstates him, an advisor said.

The announcement came after Zelaya accused the de facto leadership of Roberto Micheletti of seeking to run out the clock until polls for a new president at the end of the month.

Micheletti's cabinet resigned en masse later on Thursday to pave the way for a unity government, despite Zelaya's announcement that he would not take part in it.

An accord reached last week to resolve the four-month crisis calls on Congress to decide on Zelaya's restitution — but provides no deadline for the vote, which has not yet taken place.

Zelaya, who has been holed up in the Brazilian embassy since his surprise return on 21 September, decided on Thursday that he would not present any candidates for the unity government, said his advisor Rasel Tome.

"If there's no president, who will swear them (the new ministers) in?" Tome said.

The crisis deal, signed last Friday, calls for a unity government to start work on 5 November.

Sent into exile in his pyjamas

It also calls for a return to the situation prior to 28 June when soldiers sent Zelaya into exile in his pyjamas, but says the congress was to vote on his reinstatement. It provides no alternative if lawmakers vote against Zelaya or fail to vote.

The president of the Honduran congress, Jose Angel Saavedra, said on Thursday that the 128-member body would not "avoid the historic responsibility" of deciding on Zelaya's return to power, but failed to give a date for the vote.

Former Chilean president Ricardo Lagos, part of a four-member commission formed to oversee implementation of the deal, said earlier in Chile that Micheletti had offered to give up the leadership once the unity government was set up.

The United States on Wednesday backed slow-moving efforts to resolve the crisis.

"We'll continue to assist and support the implementation process, but it's up to the Hondurans to actually carry through," said State Department spokesperson Ian Kelly.

Kelly would not comment on what the United States would do if the Honduran Congress voted against Zelaya's reinstatement, or if it takes no action before 29 November elections that will choose his successor.

Amid high tension in polarised Honduras, a homemade bomb exploded on Thursday in public bathrooms in central Tegucigalpa, causing minor damage, a police spokesperson said.

Two other bombs exploded the previous day including one in a radio station seen as sympathetic to Micheletti, and another which killed one person, said Olin Cerrato.

AFP

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