UNITED NATIONS – Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero called on Thursday for the restoration of the rule of law in Honduras, where the army ousted the elected president on June 28.

“We won’t accept an antidemocratic coup and democracy must return” to the Central American country, Zapatero said in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly.

He underlined the support of Spain and the international community for Latin American nations which, after years of struggling to achieve democracy and respect for human rights, “have decided to meet the challenge of Honduras.”

Zapatero maintains the only solution in Honduras is the reinstatement of elected President Mel Zelaya prior to the presidential elections set for Nov. 29.

Spain on Thursday joined its European Union partners and members of the Organization of American States in ordering their respective ambassadors back to Tegucigalpa.

With Zelaya back in the country since Monday, when he took up temporary residence at the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Madrid has endorsed an OAS proposal for dialogue between the deposed head of state and the de facto regime.

Prior to addressing the assembly, Zapatero met with the presidents of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, and Argentina, Cristina Fernandez, and the three leaders agreed that Zelaya’s reinstatement is a prerequisite for legitimate elections in Honduras.

Spanish officials said that while the meeting’s main purpose was to coordinate positions ahead of the impeding G-20 economic summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the officials took the opportunity to discuss the Honduran crisis.

Zapatero, Calderon and Fernandez also endorsed Brazil’s request that the U.N. Security Council adopt a resolution urging Honduras to respect the sovereignty of the Brazilian mission in Tegucigalpa, the Spanish officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced Wednesday that he was suspending electoral assistance to Honduras because conditions there make “credible” elections impossible.

The Honduran de facto government said Thursday that two Zelaya supporters had been killed in disturbances since the deposed head of state returned to the country, but opposition sources say the actual death toll is closer to 10.

Zelaya was arrested and expelled from the country by the military on June 28, when a plurality of lawmakers designated Congress speaker Roberto Micheletti as head of government.

Micheletti says Zelaya’s ouster was not a coup, insisting that the soldiers who dragged him from the presidential palace were simply enforcing a Supreme Court ban on the president’s planned non-binding plebiscite on the idea of revising the constitution.

While the coup leaders accuse Zelaya of seeking to extend his stay in office, any potential constitutional change to allow presidential re-election would not have taken place until well after the incumbent stepped down.

The OAS, the United States and the EU have been pressing Micheletti to accept the San Jose Accord, a proposal put forward by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.

The plan calls for Zelaya to return and lead a national unity government for the few months left in his term, and for a political amnesty that would protect both the coup plotters and the ousted head of state, who stands accused of various offenses by the de facto regime.

While Zelaya has accepted the plan, Micheletti flatly rejects the reinstatement of the elected head of state. EFE