CARACAS, Venezuela -- A U.S.-mediated pact reached last week that aims to return deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya to office and end the country's destabilizing political crisis is in danger of unraveling as Honduras' Congress takes its time to consider the deal.

Zelaya's supporters say that failure to approve the deal in the next few days would kill the final opportunity to legitimize this month's presidential elections by keeping a government in power that no foreign leaders have recognized. They warn there could be more of the street protests and repressive government countermoves that have sunk the country's economy.

However, Honduras' congressional leadership has postponed the crucial vote by asking the country's Supreme Court, attorney general and human rights ombudsman to give nonbinding opinions on the legality of Zelaya's return.

Congressman Antonio Rivera said Wednesday that the entities might need as long as two weeks to offer their views.

``There's no timetable in the agreement for when Congress has to vote,'' Rivera said by telephone from Tegucigalpa, the capital.

Zelaya's supporters fear that allies of interim President Roberto Micheletti and opponents of the former president are stalling as the Nov. 29 presidential and congressional elections approach.

At a press conference Wednesday in Washington, Eduardo Enrique Reina, Ambassador of the Republic of Honduras to the United States, said the defacto regime seems to have its own interpretation of the accord and called Congress's refusal to meet ``a stalling technique.''

``This is being drawn out,'' he said. ``They should be able to do this. They're just trying to buy time until the election, seeking to defy the international community. To not reinstate him is not something that's acceptable.''

Zelaya remains sheltered at the Brazilian Embassy, claiming to be Honduras' rightful president but unable to step outside without being arrested by government troops posted around-the-clock. The country remains polarized over whether he should be allowed to complete the final 85 days in his term.

Those who oppose Zelaya's return say they can't trust a man who allied with Venezuela's Hugo Chávez and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega and who they think precipitated his removal from office by the military June 28 by violating the country's constitution, said Daniel O'Connor, a spokesman for a group of powerful business and civic leaders.

``The general attitude here: We're in terrible shape, but it would be worse if Zelaya returns,'' said Adolfo Facusse, a leading businessman who's the president of the National Association of Honduran Industry. ``People here see dealing with Zelaya as like dealing with the devil.''

Analysts said the 128 members of the unicameral Congress were proceeding cautiously as they weighed how a vote rife with controversy would affect their reelection chances later this month, along with the campaigns of their parties' presidential candidates.

In sharp contrast, the Congress voted 122-6 to name Micheletti the country's new president only hours after the military whisked Zelaya out of the country in his pajamas.

Zelaya alienated one-time supporters in Congress by shifting left in the middle of his term to ally with Chávez, refusing to send the country's annual budget to Congress for approval and pushing for a public referendum on convening a special assembly to rewrite the constitution, which the Supreme Court deemed to be illegal.