July 13 (Bloomberg) -- Honduras’s acting president, Roberto Micheletti, said talks mediated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias to resolve the political crisis may resume July 18.

The interim Honduran government, which took power after the military expelled President Manuel Zelaya on June 28, is also considering holding a presidential election within two months, Micheletti’s chief of staff, Javier Valladares, told reporters at the same news conference today in Tegucigalpa. The election is now scheduled for Nov. 29.

A first round of talks in Costa Rica ended last week without a resolution or agreement on when to continue. Zelaya has the support of the U.S. and the Organization of American States for a return to power, and has called his demand to be reinstated “non-negotiable.”

“We’ve been informed that possibly on Saturday we will be called to Costa Rica again,” Micheletti said at the presidential palace. “We are ready for the moment President Arias calls us to a meeting to continue dialogue.”

Arias hasn’t yet set a date or time for a meeting, his spokesman, Esteban Arrieta, said by e-mail. Zelaya said today that Micheletti is using the talks to stall, and said he’s giving the “coup government” an “ultimatum” to abandon the presidency and allow him to return by the end of the next round of dialogue in Costa Rica.

“If this situation continues, we would consider that this process of mediation is on the road to failure,” Zelaya told reporters today in Nicaragua, in comments broadcast by the Telesur news channel.

Willing to Talk

Micheletti said today he is willing to meet with Zelaya at the second round of talks. Zelaya, when asked if he would meet face to face with Micheletti, responded that he’s already said he won’t meet with the man that “violated” his home.

The acting president has said that Zelaya violated the constitution while in office and would be arrested if he returns. Zelaya was trying to hold a poll to measure support for a proposal to modify the constitution, and Micheletti says the aim was to allow the president to seek another term.

Honduras’s constitution states that any attempt by a president to seek another term in office is illegal, said Juliet Hooker, a government professor at the University of Texas at Austin who has done research on Central American politics.

Today Micheletti swore in a new foreign minister, Carlos Lopez Contreras, who said that only Congress can grant amnesty to Zelaya, a possibility Micheletti mentioned in an interview with Reuters.

Financial ‘Difficulties’

Micheletti also said his government will present a budget to Congress tomorrow, and that the country is facing financial “difficulties.”

Honduras has become increasingly isolated since the acting president took over. The World Bank placed aid to the country, the third-poorest in Central America, on hold June 30, and the OAS suspended its participation in the multilateral institution earlier this month.

“We’re having quite a lot of difficulties but there’s a commitment of the government to achieve our objectives,” Micheletti said today, about the government’s finances.

No government has recognized him as the president of Honduras, and every country in the European Union has pulled its ambassador from Tegucigalpa. The U.S. has kept its ambassador as President Barack Obama said he wants Zelaya restored to office.

Still, the interim government is having some success in convincing U.S. officials it should be viewed as legitimate, Micheletti’s deputy foreign minister, Marta Lorena de Casco, said in an interview in Tegucigalpa.

Public Relations

“There are a fair amount of lawmakers, senators and even Democrats who are starting to understand,” she said.

Micheletti’s backers are getting help to shift American perceptions. Washington lawyer Lanny Davis, a special counsel under President Bill Clinton and supporter of Hillary Clinton’s campaign for president, assisted with public relations last week.

Bennet Ratcliff, a consultant with VA/R Partners in La Jolla, California, who worked on Bill Clinton’s presidential campaigns, traveled to Costa Rica last week with Micheletti’s delegation.

Holding early elections may be problematic, said Hooker, the University of Texas professor.

“The problem with Micheletti serving out the rest of Zelaya’s term is that the elections would be tainted by a government whose legitimacy itself is tainted,” she said.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a Zelaya ally, already said he won’t recognize a president elected in a vote called by the Micheletti government.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jens Erik Gould in Tegucigalpa at jgould9@bloomberg.net; Matthew Walter in Caracas at mwalter4@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: July 13, 2009 19:49 EDT