The Mexican foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday it was "taking measures" to grant political asylum to ousted Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya.

Zelaya, who was bundled out of the country during the June coup, secretly returned to the country on September 21 and took refuge in the Brazilian Embassy hoping to regain control. Associated Press reported earlier in the day that the Honduran interim government has already authorized his safe passage to Mexico.

"During the past several hours the Mexican government has been taking measures to grant the request of President Manuel Zelaya," the ministry said on its website.

Mexican diplomats said they were seeking to "receive the necessary security guarantees, so that president Zelaya could safely leave the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa."

The foreign minister of the de-facto Honduran government, Carlos Lîpez, confirmed that the Mexican government had sent a plane to take Zelaya, his wife Xiomara Castro and two children to Mexico, but the plane "changed its route at the last moment and landed in El Salvador."

In his interview to the TeleSur TV channel Zelaya said he would leave Honduras only as the head of state.

"I do not seek asylum in any country" he said.

Zelaya's spokesman, Enrique Flores Lanz, told the TV channel that "he [Zelaya] is ready to accept an invitation from the Mexican leadership and to visit the country as an honored guest, not as an expatriate."

He added that upon his arrival to Mexico the ousted president planned to head to the December 14 ALBA summit in Havana.

Last week, the Honduran Congress voted against the reinstatement of Zelaya, who has been holed up in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa for the past three months, for the remainder of his term, which ends in January.

Porfirio Lobo of the Honduran opposition National Party won the recent elections, which took place amid an ongoing political crisis.

BUENOS AIRES, December 10 (RIA Novosti)