The head of the Organisation of American States (OAS) has arrived in Honduras to demand the reinstatement of Manuel Zelaya, its ousted president.
Jose Miguel Insulza will push for Zelaya to be restored to power when he meets members of congress and the supreme court during his short visit on Friday.
The 35-member OAS has set a Saturday deadline for Honduras to comply with its demands.
"I cannot say I'm confident, I will do everything I can, but I think it will be very hard to turn things around in a couple of days," Insulza said.
The OAS has threatened to expel Honduras from the regional grouping if it fails to meet its deadline.
Insulza sais he will not talk to members of the military-backed interim government as his organisation does not recognise it.
"We are not going to Honduras to negotiate, we are going to Honduras to ask them to change what they have been doing now, and find ways in which we can return to normalcy," he said before heading to Honduras.
Mixed messages
The interim government has resisted calls to restore Zelaya as president, but has sent mixed messages about using the ballot box to resolve the crisis.
Roberto Micheletti, the interim president, said on Thursday that he had "no objection" to bringing forward November presidential elections.
But when pressed for details, Micheletti told Al Jazeera that congress would have to decide on the early polls and Zelaya could not sit in the president's seat again because it would go against Honduran law.
Zelaya, meanwhile, has vowed to return to Honduras on Saturday, despite warnings he will be arrested.
He has said it was the responsibility of the international community to ensure he was reinstated.
At a news conference in Panama City, Zelaya urged his supporters to keep demonstrating.
"I call on the people to keep up the banners. The street is ours. They've taken the institutions away from us, but the street belongs to the people," he said.
Thousands of Zelaya supporters on Thursday staged their largest demonstration since Sunday's coup when they marched from a military base to a UN office.
Police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators, but there were no reports of injuries or arrests.
An equal number of Micheletti backers marched in San Pedro Sula, the country's second largest city.