Honduran Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas Baca said Monday that the appointment of interim President Roberto Micheletti by the country's legislature on Sunday was illegal.

"One way out of the crisis Honduras is experiencing is the reestablishment of legality via a dialogue in which the Organization of American States (OAS) can participate," she said, adding that Micheletti could take his original position as president of congress.

Micheletti had been president of Honduras' congress until Sunday afternoon when the body voted to appoint him as interim president of the nation.

The legislature voted him in after reading a letter, purportedly by President Manuel Zelaya, saying that he resigned and tendered the resignation of his cabinet. Zelaya has denounced that the letter was fake.

Rodas said that Zelaya's mandate ends on Jan. 27, 2010 and that he remains Honduras' leader until that date.

Rodas was reportedly detained together with several government officials in the coup, and was later flown to Mexico with the help of Mexico's diplomatic mission in Honduras.

She traveled to Nicaragua on Monday with Mexico's President Felipe Calderon to attend the Central America Integration System (SICA) summit in Nicaragua's capital Managua.

Managua is also hosting emergency meetings of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) nations and the Group of Rio to discuss the coup in Honduras.

Honduran army ousted and exiled President Zelaya, 56, on Sunday in the first military coup in Central America since the Cold War, triggered by his bid to make it legal to seek another term in office.

Zelaya was forced to board a plane to Costa Rica and later he arrived in Managua on board a Venezuelan plane to attend a special summit meeting of the ALBA.

The coup has been widely condemned by Latin America countries, the Organization of American States, United Nations and ALBA.

Source: Xinhua