TEGUCIGALPA -- The Obama administration has backed away from its call to restore ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to power and instead put the onus on him for taking ``provocative actions'' that polarized his country and led to his overthrow on June 28.

The new position was contained in a letter this week to Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., that also rejected calls by some of Zelaya's backers to impose harsh economic sanctions against Honduras.

While condemning the coup, the letter pointedly fails to call for Zelaya's return. ``Our policy and strategy for engagement is not based on supporting any particular politician or individual,'' said the letter to the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The new U.S. position is likely to undercut diplomatic efforts to bring about Zelaya's return, analysts said.

It may, in time, help the administration win confirmation for three top State Department officials President Barack Obama has appointed to deal with the region. Senate Republicans have put their nominations on hold to protest U.S. policy in Honduras.

About 1,000 pro-Zelaya demonstrators protested outside the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa on Thursday after the State Department letter was made public in the Honduran media.

While condemning the overthrow and predawn expulsion of Zelaya, the Aug. 4 letter said that Zelaya, who is allied with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez, was largely to blame for his plight.

``We also recognize that President Zelaya's insistence on undertaking provocative actions contributed to the polarization of Honduran society and led to a confrontation that unleashed the events that led to his removal,'' said the letter, signed by Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs Richard Verma.

A NEW PRESIDENT?

`I think this could open the door for an alternative option as president,'' said Jorge Yllesca, a political consultant based in Honduras, meaning that interim President Roberto Micheletti might try to end the political crisis by stepping aside, not for Zelaya but for the president of the Congress or the chief justice of the Supreme Court.

The crisis began when Zelaya insisted on staging a referendum June 28 that would support a constitutional convention leading to a constitutional change that would allow him to seek reelection. Zelaya had only six more months in office before a non-Chávez ally was likely to take over as Honduras' next president.

Chávez and two of his South American allies, Bolivian President Evo Morales and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, have won public approval for new constitutions that allow them to extend their terms in office.

The Honduran Congress, the attorney general's office and the state prosecutor all advised Zelaya that Honduras' constitution didn't permit the referendum.

He went ahead anyway, and was ousted.

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a conservative Republican congresswoman from Miami, applauded the State Department letter.

``It seems that the U.S. is stepping a bit away from its unabashed support for Zelaya,'' Ros-Lehtinen said in a telephone interview.

She would prefer that the Obama administration break ranks with the rest of Latin America and Europe and drop its support for Zelaya.

Republican senators angered by the administration's Honduras policy put a hold on Obama's nomination of Arturo Valenzuela to be assistant secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs, along with two key ambassadorial nominees.

Lugar, in a July 30 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said he hoped that her explanation could ``improve the prospects'' of confirming Valenzuela this week.

The Obama administration has taken a series of low-level steps to show its dissatisfaction with the Micheletti government.

PUNITIVE STEPS

The U.S. has revoked diplomatic visas for five Hondurans associated with the Micheletti government. It suspended anti-drug operations from the U.S. military base in Honduras, withheld $16 million in defense aid and warned that it might not disburse the final 10 percent of money for Honduras under a $250 million aid program.

The U.S. also has strongly supported the mediation efforts of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who has proposed a compromise plan to reinstate Zelaya with limited powers. Micheletti has rejected the plan, while Zelaya has accepted it.

The letter to Lugar said U.S. officials wouldn't go much further.

``We have rejected calls for crippling economic sanctions,'' it said.

The letter comes at a time when Zelaya is expressing his unhappiness with the Obama administration.

``The United States only needs to tighten its fist, and the coup will last five seconds,'' Zelaya said Tuesday in Mexico.McClatchy correspondent James Rosen contributed to this report.

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