Source: Al Jazeera

The Honduran president ousted by a military coup and forced into exile has said he will return home on Thursday.

Speaking in the Nicaraguan capital, Managua, late on Monday, Manuel Zelaya said: "I go to Tegucigalpa on Thursday. I'm the elected president, I will fulfil my four-year term."

He said he had accepted an offer by Jose Miguel Insulza, the head of the Organisation of American States, to be accompanied to Honduras after they attend talks on the crisis in Washington on Wednesday.

Zelaya's announcement before regional leaders came as soldiers and riot police confronted his supporters in the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa, firing tear gas into a crowd massed outside the presidential palace earlier on Monday.

Protesters were calling for the reinstatement of the president who was forced into exile in Costa Rica after a coup on Sunday.