The Honduran Supreme Court gave a resounding No" to the demand by the Organization of American States to reinstate Chavez stooge former President Zeyala.

The BBC is also reporting that Zeyala plans to return to Honduras on Sunday. Honduran officials say if he makes one step into the country, he will be arrested.

The BBC reports:

Speaking to reporters, the OAS chief said: "We wanted to ask that this situation [Mr Zelaya's removal] be reversed. Unfortunately, one must say that there appears to be no willingness to do this."

Ending his visit to Honduras, he said the change of government last week had unequivocally been a "military coup".

Mr Zelaya had wanted to hold a referendum that could have removed the current one-term limit on serving as president, paving the way for his possible re-election.

Instead troops - backed by Congress and the courts - took him from the presidential palace and put him on a plane to Costa Rica.

The new leadership enjoys the support of a substantial proportion of the population and says it stands for democracy, our correspondent reports.

It suggests that Mr Zelaya had despotic ambitions, and therefore the extreme action of removing him from power was justified.

But governments around the world disagree, and believe that a clear message should be sent to Honduras that using the army to depose a president is not acceptable, our correspondent says.