Tegucigalpa, Honduras – Honduras’ interim leader has backed off his opposition to restoring Manuel Zelaya to the presidency but wants concessions to mollify reluctant business leaders, a former Honduran government official said Thursday.

Interim President Roberto Micheletti’s refusal to consider Zelaya’s reinstatement had been a key stumbling block in talks on solving the Central American nation’s political crisis following the June 28 coup.

Micheletti told the chief mediator in the conflict, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, that the door was open to Zelaya’s reinstatement, said the former official, who has been in frequent contact with Micheletti.

Sudan envoy urges relaxed sanctions

Washington – President Barack Obama’s top Sudan envoy said Thursday that there was no basis for keeping Sudan on the U.S. list of states that sponsor terrorism and that it was only a matter of time before the United States would have to “unwind” economic sanctions against the Khartoum government.

Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Scott Gration’s remarks before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee represented the most forceful critique yet by a U.S. official of the long-standing American effort to put economic and political pressure on Sudan’s Islamic government. Sudan, which has harbored members of al-Qaida, including Osama bin Laden, was designated a terrorism sponsor in 1993.

Gration’s comments Thursday raised concerns among activists and Sudan’s critics in Congress that the administration is offering to reward Sudan without securing assurances that the government will take steps to end conflict in Darfur and southern Sudan.

The president’s national security advisers have been locked in dispute over the right mix of rewards and penalties to persuade the Khartoum government to pursue peace in those regions.