EU does not regard Honduran elections as "normal"

Madrid (DPA) - The European Union does not regard this week's elections in Honduras as 'normal' - but wants to find 'a political solution' for the crisis in the Central American country, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said Thursday.

Moratinos, whose country will take over the rotating EU presidency on January 1, said the EU had agreed on the basis for a common position on Honduras which will be finalized by foreign ministers in Brussels next week.

'A consensus has already been reached on a declaration in the sense that the elections proceeded peacefully, but in exceptional circumstances,' Moratinos said at a joint press conference with the EU's new foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

The declaration would say that 'they were not normal elections, but with a will to seek a political solution in the future,' Moratinos said.

The EU was due to decide whether to recognize the victory of conservative candidate Porfirio Lobo.

The elections were staged by the de facto government which took power following a June 28 coup. Ousted president Manuel Zelaya called for an election boycott.