Congress in Honduras will not vote on whether to restore ousted¹ President Manuel Zelaya until after elections this month, a senior lawmaker said.

一位资深立法者称，直到本月选举结束，洪都拉斯国会都不会考虑是否就恢复被流放总统塞拉亚的职位进行投票。

Mr Zelaya's term of office is due to end in January

Congressional president Jose Alvedro Saavedra said Congress would meet in early December to decide if Mr Zelaya will be allowed to serve out his term.

Some regional states say they will not recognise the presidential poll unless Mr Zelaya is restored beforehand.

He was ousted in June, but returned to Honduras in secret in September.

Since then he has taken refuge in the Brazilian embassy in the capital, Tegucigalpa.

The US helped to broker²（中间人） a power-sharing deal between Mr Zelaya and interim³（临时的） President Roberto Micheletti, but the accord（一致，调和） collapsed⁴ earlier this month.

Mr Zelaya warned last weekend that he would not return to the presidency⁵ if Congress voted to restore him after the elections. He said doing so would legitimise his removal from office in June.

His term of office is due to end in January.

As the feuding⁶ continued, senior US diplomat⁷ Craig Kelly arrived in Honduras on Tuesday to meet the two sides, a spokeswoman for the US embassy in Tegucigalpa confirmed.

It is Mr Kelly's second trip in less than a week to try to revive the deal.

Mr Zelaya was ousted after planning to hold a non-binding public consultation⁸（公开讨论） to ask people whether they supported moves to change the constitution.

His critics said the move was unconstitutional and aimed to remove the current one-term limit on serving as president and pave the way for（为……铺平道路） his possible re-election.