President Zelaya of Honduras is poised for a surprise return to power after his four-month exile. The leaders who toppled him in a coup agreed a deal to end the crisis, which has caused months of simmering violence in the Central American nation.

Mr Zelaya’s clandestine return to Honduras in September and his defiant stay in the Brazilian Embassy appeared to have paid off finally as the de facto leader Roberto Micheletti capitulated under US pressure to an agreement allowing for his reinstatement until the end of his term in January.

Mr Zelaya, speaking in the capital Tegucigalpa, expressed his “satisfaction and optimism” at the deal, which he said heralded the return of democracy to Honduras. The Honduran Congress is expected to vote on the deal within the next few days, after a non-binding ruling by the country's Supreme Court.

Mr Zelaya was marched on to a plane bound for Costa Rica at gunpoint on June 28, still wearing his pyjamas, after being woken in the early hours by soldiers. The plotters claimed he was trying to change the constitution to allow his re-election in a November 29 presidential poll; he denies such plans, saying opponents were motivated by his left-wing policies and alliance with socialist President Chávez of Venezuela.

In the following months he made three attempts to return, the first two blocked by the Honduran Army and marred by the killings of pro-Zelaya protesters. He eventually succeeded on September 21, astonishing the world by appearing inside the Brazilian Embassy after a secret overland return from Nicaragua.

Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State, hailed the end to the crisis precipitated by the first Central American coup since the end of the Cold War.

“I cannot think of another example of a country in Latin America that, having suffered a rupture of its democratic institutional order, overcame such a crisis through negotiation and dialogue,” she said.

It is hoped the deal will restore calm to the streets of Tegucigalpa, where security forces once again used batons and tear gas against hundreds of demonstrating Zelaya supporters this week. Protest leader Rafael Alegria, of the Via Campesina movement, said several had been injured and at least ten detained.

This week also saw the deaths of an army colonel and a nephew of Mr Micheletti in execution-style shootings, the killers as yet unidentified.

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