The exiled Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has said he will return to his country later this week after addressing the United Nations in New York to protest the coup that ousted him from power.

"I go to Tegucigalpa on Thursday," Mr Zelaya said in a speech before regional leaders in Mangua.

"I'm the elected president, I will fulfil my four-year term," he vowed.

Mr Zelaya was ousted in a dawn coup on Sunday morning after being roused by his own soldiers while in his pyjamas at the presidential compound, and put on an airplane for Costa Rica.

It was Central America's first military coup since the Cold War and ended a bitter power struggle with the military. The National Congress swiftly voted in a new leader, Roberto Micheletti, the parliamentary speaker.

Mr Micheletti was appointed the country's new leader a few hours after Mr Zelaya had been flown across the border and he immediately ordered a 48-hour curfew after denying that there had been a coup d'etat on the deposed president.

"A curfew begins today and ends on Tuesday," he said at his first press conference on Monday as worldwide condemnation of the overthrow, led by the United States, continued.

However Mr Zelaya has remained defiant.

"I will return voluntarily with the protection of the blood of Christ, for God and for my people," he said on Monday.

Mr Zelaya also accepted the offer of Jose Miguel Insulza, the leader of the Organization of American States, to accompany him, along with other regional leaders who wish to travel with him.

During his speech, Mr Zelaya, 57, welcomed the unanimous support he has received from around the world, notably from the US.

President Barack Obama has condemned the coup and said the US believed Zelaya "remains the president of Honduras" and said the coup was "not legal." He called for international cooperation to resolve the crisis peacefully.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the international community's "immediate priority is to restore full democratic and constitutional order in that country."

Protests rocked the streets of the Honduran capital on Monday in the most serious unrest in years in the country.

Hundreds of angry Zelaya supporters erected barricades near the presidential palace, throwing rocks and clashing directly with riot police and soldiers.

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