Guadalajara, Mexico - US President Barack Obama reiterated on Monday his support for ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, but also rejected criticism from those who claim Washington is doing too little to secure his reinstatement.

"The same critics who say that the United States has not intervened enough in Honduras are the same people who say that we're always intervening and the Yankees need to get out of Latin America," Obama said in a press conference at the end of the North American Leaders Summit, flanked by Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

"You can't have it both ways," he noted.

Obama made it very clear that Zelaya "was removed from office illegally, that it was a coup, and that he should return."

"President Zelaya remains the democratically elected president," Obama said. "For the sake of the Honduran people, democratic and constitutional order must be restored."

Calderon too made reference to the situation in Honduras.

"This is not about one person or another. This is not about President Zelaya himself," he noted. "It is about the constitutional and democratic life that ought to be defended with regard to the international legal framework that we have all agreed upon."

At the same time, Calderon said he agreed with Obama's take on what the Mexican leader defined as a "contradiction."

"Those who have rejected or who have complained of the intervention of the United States in the region are those who now are calling for determination or for the intervention of the United States in the region," he said.

In the face of such discrepancies, Calderon asked that everyone turn "to international law and the international spheres beyond the intervention of one single state, or even more the intervention of one single person."

Harper also felt compelled to weigh in on the debate, "as a friend of the United States."

"If I were an American, I would be really fed up with this kind of hypocrisy," he said. "You know, the United States is accused of meddling except when it's accused of not meddling."

The joint statement from the three leaders stressed that they "are deeply committed to helping strengthen democratic institutions and the rule of law throughout the Americas."

"We have thoroughly discussed the coup in Honduras and reaffirm our support for the San José Accord and the ongoing OAS effort to seek a peaceful resolution of the political crisis - a resolution which restores democratic governance and the rule of law and respects the rights of all Hondurans," the leaders said in the joint statement.

Zelaya was ousted on June 28 in a bloodless coup. He was exiled by the Honduran military but has sought to return to power, without success despite the backing of the international community.

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for his efforts to bring peace to the troubled Central America, was designated to head mediation efforts toward Zelaya's restoration.

However, the Honduran government set up after the coup and led by former Congress speaker Roberto Micheletti has refused to allow Zelaya's return to power, and has vowed to have him arrested if he sets foot on the country at all.(dpa)