Santiago/Tegucigalpa  - Roberto Micheletti, the head of the de facto government in Honduras, admitted Friday that talks are ongoing between his administration and ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.

"There are talks through a mediator, but I cannot give many details," Micheletti said in an interview with Chilean daily La Tercera.

He said he was willing to give up power "if conditions are right," but he pointed to the presidential election scheduled for November 29 as the path to end the Honduran crisis.

"There is an electoral process and that is the path for the normalization of the political situation," Micheletti said.

However, the international community and Zelaya - who was ousted by a military coup on June 28 - have rejected the elections as illegitimate and demand Zelaya's reinstatement.

Brazilian legislators visiting Honduras said late Thursday that Zelaya had promised to adopt a more moderate tone in talking to his supporters from the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, where he took refuge upon his secret return to Honduras on September 21.

A representative of the Organization of American States (OAS) meanwhile said both Zelaya and the de facto government had expressed willingness to open a dialogue to end the crisis sparked by Zelaya's return.

Zelaya had promised not to launch calls for an uprising from the embassy, and to "maintain moderation," said Raul Jungmann, head of a delegation of Brazilian legislators who met with Zelaya on Thursday.

Zelaya had called for a "final offensive" of his supporters and used slogans such as "fatherland, (his) reinstatement (as president) or death."

The Brazilian delegation also met with Supreme Court presiding judge Jorge Rivera, who guaranteed to them that Honduran police and soldiers would not assault the embassy to arrest Zelaya.

Chilean diplomat John Biehl said after visiting Honduras that Zelaya and the Micheletti government were getting closer to dialogue.

Biehl, an OAS advisor who was able to enter Honduras while four other OAS staff were barred entry on Sunday, said in Santiago de Chile that there was "a little bit less emotional behaviour and a little bit more rationality" in Honduras.

Nevertheless, "there is a very real fear on both sides that this might lead to violence such as this country has not seen in a great many years," Biehl told the Chilean website Emol.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) meanwhile expressed concern over the treatment of more than 40 people who were arrested when police ended the three-month occupation of an agrarian institute by pro-Zelaya farmers on Wednesday.

ICRC representatives visiting the detainees had found out that they were not allowed to make phone calls to their families, and were kept in poor hygienic conditions, the ICRC said in Mexico.

Daily protests have continued in Honduras, with hundreds of Zelaya supporters demonstrating near the US and Brazilian embassies and the television station Canal 36, which was closed down by the authorities.

The rallies were, however, drawing fewer people than before, observers said.  dpa