Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama will send the U.S. State Department’s top Latin American diplomat to Honduras tomorrow to try to end a stalemate in talks and resolve the country’s four-month-old political crisis.

Thomas Shannon, the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, will lead a delegation of senior administration officials who plan to urge ousted President Manuel Zelaya and acting President Roberto Micheletti to “show flexibility,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters in Washington.

The visit will be the most public involvement yet by the U.S. to resolve the impasse in time to move ahead with presidential elections scheduled for Nov. 29, said Bruce Bagley, who heads the University of Miami’s international studies department. The U.S. and Latin America have threatened not to recognize the vote until Zelaya is reinstated.

Zelaya was arrested on a Supreme Court order by the military in late June, then put on a plane at gunpoint to Costa Rica. He has been holed up in Brazil’s Embassy since sneaking back into the country last month.

Success in ending the crisis could clear the way for the Senate to confirm Shannon as ambassador to Brazil. Senator Jim DeMint has used Senate rules to block a vote on Shannon’s nomination since July over his dissatisfaction with Obama’s handling of the Honduran crisis.

“There’s no doubt the U.S. has upped the ante as time runs out,” said Bagley. “There’s almost complete unanimity internationally that there will be no resolution until Zelaya is reinstated.”

DeMint spokesman Wesley Denton said the South Carolina Republican would withdraw his objection to Shannon, as well as to Obama’s choice of Arturo Valenzuela to succeed Shannon at the State Department, if the U.S. agrees to recognize the results of the Honduran election.

To contact the reporters on this story: Joshua Goodman in Rio de Janeiro jgoodman19@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 27, 2009 17:10 EDT