TEGUCIGALPA, (Reuters) – Ousted Honduran President  Manuel Zelaya and de facto rulers in power since a June coup  returned to the negotiating table yesterday under U.S.  pressure, with a pro-Zelaya radio station saying a deal may be  close.

But Zelaya told the station, Radio Globo, it was too soon  to know what the caretaker government’s position would be on  the key issue of whether he can be temporarily reinstated.

“We are at the same point as where we started, with 95  percent agreed on,” Zelaya said. “There is absolutely no  approval yet of anything.”

Zelaya appealed for calm after some protesters were hurt in  protests backing the leftist, who was toppled in a coup on June  28 and exiled. He snuck back into the country last month.

A team led by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Tom Shannon  and Dan Restrepo, Washington’s special assistant for Western  Hemisphere affairs, is in Tegucigalpa for a last-ditch effort  to broker a resolution.
Zelaya, holed up in the Brazilian Embassy surrounded by  troops, pulled out of the most recent talks last week.

“Time is running out. We only have a month. We need an  agreement as soon as possible,” Shannon said after the U.S.  officials met with both sides.

Radio Globo said a deal, including an agreement on letting  Zelaya serve the end of his term to January, was close to  completion and awaiting approval by the country’s Congress.