Mr. Zelaya arrived at a rural frontier crossing and immediately grabbed a megaphone, shouting to a crowd of 150 supporters and about as many journalists. He vowed to wait near the border and demanded his family be allowed to meet him.

"We are going to stand firm," Mr. Zelaya told the crowd, complaining that the interim government has not allowed him to reunite with his family, whom he hasn't seen since he was whisked at gunpoint from his home June 28 and forced into exile.

"Today we are going to set up camps here, with water and food. We are going to stay here this afternoon, tonight and tomorrow morning," he said.

Mr. Zelaya's wife, Xiomara Castro, told CNN by telephone that she was stopped at a roadblock on a highway leading to the border and that police and soldiers would not let her and others pass.

Mr. Zelaya is apparently going to commute back and forth between the camp and the nearby Nicaraguan town of El Ocotal, and he said he probably wouldn't try another border crossing like the brief, symbolic trip a few meters (yards) into Honduran territory he performed on Friday, saying he feared soldiers would attack his supporters.

About 50 soldiers manned a line about 100 meters inside Honduran territory, with a few Honduran police a bit closer to the line.

By afternoon, the tents promised by Mr. Zelaya had yet to show up, and Mr. Zelaya's supporters sought shelter from afternoon rains under the eaves of border shops and ramshackle eateries.

Honduran school teacher Dania Gomez Perez, 26, was one of about 40 Zelaya reporters who arrived at the border Friday after walking all day through the mountains, after Honduran police refused to allow the bus to go any further.

"We are ready to risk our lives, because the people demand Zelaya's return, said Gomez Perez.

On Friday, Mr. Zelaya triumphantly lifted a chain marking the frontier and took a few strides into Honduran territory, where the interim government has charged him with violating the constitution and has vowed to arrest him.

He retreated into Nicaragua less than 30 minutes later. Soldiers did not approach him Friday at the remote mountain border crossing.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the trip "reckless' and said it would not help restore democratic and constitutional order.

Mr. Zelaya is demanding he be reinstated as president following the coup, which has been widely repudiated around the globe.

Mr. Zelaya's brief excursion a few feet into his homeland brought the Honduran political crisis no closer to a resolution -- and irritated some foreign leaders who are trying to help him reclaim office. Washington has already suspended more than $18 million in military and development assistance. The European Union has frozen $92 million in development aid.

But it kept up the pressure on the interim government of Roberto Micheletti, who replaced Mr. Zelaya, and the international community, highlighting the threat of unrest if negotiations fail to yield a peaceful solution.

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias acted as mediator in talks to resolve the crisis, and last week presented a proposal that would restore Mr. Zelaya to the presidency and offer amnesty to all sides involved.

But it was rejected in Tegucigalpa, with the sticking point still being Mr. Zelaya's return.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley confirmed that Mr. Zelaya intends to come to Washington Tuesday "for further discussions." However, Mr. Zelaya said there has been no confirmation yet on whether he will meet with Clinton, who he said lacked adequate information.

"Secretary Clinton does not have adequate information about the repressive regime .. and if she doesn't have that information it is clear she doesn't really have all the context about what is going on," Mr. Zelaya said. "Her words should be to repress and admonish the coup government, not the heroic people in resistance."

Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, a Mr. Zelaya ally, took the opportunity criticize both Arias and Clinton.

"It's really an unfortunate role that President Oscar Arias is playing," Chavez said. "I don't know who spoke first, but without doubt Arias is following orders from the State Department -- and that's an embarrassment for a Latin American president."

It was unclear who would take the lead in bringing the two sides back to the table.

Meanwhile, a delegation of U.S. lawmakers led by Florida Republican Congressman Connie Mack was due to arrive Saturday on a fact-finding mission in Honduras.

Mack's office said he would be in the country through Sunday "to meet with key leaders and officials to discuss the ongoing crisis."

Mack is among a number of U.S. conservatives who argue that Zelaya's ouster was not a coup, but rather a legitimate reaction by courts and congress to Mr. Zelaya's attempts to hold a referendum on changing the constitution.

Hundreds of Hondurans defied a curfew on Friday and turned out to support Mr. Zelaya at the border town of El Paraiso, clashing with security forces who fired tear gas at the crowds.

The body of a young man who had been stabbed to death was found about 50 metres (160 feet) from where the protests took place. Mr. Zelaya supporters accused security forces of killing the man, but police spokesman Daniel Molina denied the accusations.

Mr. Zelaya, a wealth rancher who shifted to the left and allied himself with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez after being elected, said he had no choice but to travel to the border after U.S.-backed talks failed to reinstate him.

Mr. Zelaya says U.S. pressure "has been limited. Its measures have not been effective."

"There is a de facto regime ruling with bayonets, and in that sense, the United States has told me they want a peaceful solution," he said. "I'm also looking for a peaceful solution."