Brasilia/Tegucigalpa, Honduras  - Brazilian legislators visiting Honduras said Thursday that the Honduran Supreme Court had assured them of the sovereignty and security of Brazil's embassy in Tegucigalpa.

Toppled on June 28 in a coup that remains diplomatically unrecognized by the outside world, Honduran President Manuel Zelaya slipped back into the country on September 21, taking refuge in the Brazilian embassy. The de facto government that took over when Zelaya was ousted and sent into exile has demanded that Brazil either grant Zelaya asylum or hand him over to face criminal charges filed after the coup.

Jorge Rivera, presiding judge of the Honduran Supreme Court, met with the Brazilian delegation.

"He told us that there was no chance whatsoever of an invasion (of embassy grounds)," legislator Raul Jungmann told the Brazilian state news agency ABR. "He said the Court of Justice could guarantee that, and that we could take back to Brazil the message that the integrity of the Brazilian community in the country was guaranteed."

The Honduran Supreme Court issued the order for Zelaya's arrest, alleging that he had been trying to change the constitution to seek another term in office.

The Brazilian legislators were expected to visit the embassy. Legislator Paulo Valente told Brazilian website UOL that the group had already received permission from Honduras' de facto government to enter the diplomatic mission.

Chilean diplomat John Biehl said after visiting Honduras that Zelaya and the de facto government, led by former National Congress speaker Roberto Micheletti, are getting closer to dialogue.

Biehl, an advisor to organization of American States (OAS) Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza, was part of a five-member OAS delegation that entered Honduras Sunday. He was allowed to stay when the four others were immediately deported by the Micheletti government.

There is now "a little bit less emotional behaviour and a little bit more rationality" in Honduras, Biehl said after arriving in Santiago de Chile, though he did not rule out a new escalation of the political crisis.

"There is a very real fear on both sides," he told Chilean website Emol, "that this might lead to violence such as this country has not seen in a great many years." (dpa)