US President Barack Obama on Monday got support from his North American colleagues about his cautious handling of the Honduran political crisis even as South American left-leaning leaders sharpened their verbal swords against him over the issue.

Speaking at the end of the North American Leaders Summit in Guadalajara, Obama repeated his support for ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and rejected criticism from those who claim Washington is doing too little to secure his reinstatement.

"The same critics who say that the United States has not intervened enough in Honduras are the same people who say that we're always intervening and the Yankees need to get out of Latin America," Obama said in a press conference in the western Mexican city of Guadalajara.

"You can't have it both ways," he noted.

Meanwhile in Quito, Ecuador, at the summit of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur), Bolivian President Evo Morales blamed Zelaya's ouster on the United States, although not directly on the Obama Administration.

He said he had "information from a reliable source" on the issue, without giving further details.

Morales was speaking in the presence of fellow leftist Zelaya himself, at a gathering in which Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa demanded that "usurpers be ousted and tried."

In comments published in the Colombian daily El Tiempo, leftist populist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez noted that "Obama is one thing and the empire is another." Like Morales, he acknowledged that Obama has condemned the coup but charged the US military was behind the plot against the ousted Honduran leader.

At the separate summit in Mexico, Obama was flanked by Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper when he made very clear that he believed Zelaya "was removed from office illegally, that it was a coup, and that he should return."

"President Zelaya remains the democratically elected president," Obama said. "For the sake of the Honduran people, democratic and constitutional order must be restored."

Calderon and Harper backed him up.

"Those who have rejected or who have complained of the intervention of the United States in the region are those who now are calling for determination or for the intervention of the United States in the region," Calderon said.

Harper weighed in on the debate, adding: "If I were an American, I would be really fed up with this kind of hypocrisy. You know, the United States is accused of meddling except when it's accused of not meddling."

The joint statement from the three leaders stressed that they "are deeply committed to helping strengthen democratic institutions and the rule of law throughout the Americas."

"We have thoroughly discussed the coup in Honduras and reaffirm our support for the San José Accord and the ongoing OAS effort to seek a peaceful resolution of the political crisis - a resolution which restores democratic governance and the rule of law and respects the rights of all Hondurans," the leaders said in the joint statement.

Zelaya was ousted on June 28 in a bloodless coup. He was exiled by the Honduran military but has sought to return to power, without success despite the backing of the international community.

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1987 for his efforts to bring peace to troubled Central America, was designated to head mediation efforts toward Zelaya's restoration.

However, the Honduran government set up after the coup and led by former Congress speaker Roberto Micheletti has refused to allow Zelaya's return to power, and has vowed to have him arrested if he sets foot on the country at all.

Chavez still believed he saw the US hand in Zelaya's ouster.

"We could say that Obama was not and is not behind the military coup in Honduras. I hope I am wrong, but Obama could end up being completely useless," Chavez was quoted as saying.

Unasur leaders signed Monday a final declaration which included the demand for Zelaya's reinstatement.

In Guadalajara, Calderon too made reference to the situation in Honduras. (dpa)