SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez denounced a U.S.-backed effort to ease Honduras' coup crisis yesterday even as mediators tried to find a compromise by rival contenders for the presidency.

Chavez objected to the very idea of treating those who ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya as legitimate.

The talks on Thursday, mediated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, "became a trap that set a very grave precedent," Chavez told a news conference in Caracas.

Chavez said he spoke to the top U.S. diplomat for the Americas, Thomas Shannon, by telephone for a half-hour on Thursday to express his opinion on the matter.

"Do something," he said. "Obama, do something!"

U.S. officials have promoted the talks in Costa Rica's capital, hoping to ease Zelaya back into the presidency without violence while resolving the concerns of Honduras' Supreme Court, Congress and military, which say they legally removed the president for violating the constitution by maneuvering to extend his time in power.

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said yesterday that the pace of negotiations will be set by Arias but that U.S. officials would continue consultations and would work "within the OAS in the coming days to see if we can't help President Arias create momentum that leads to a peaceful resolution of this."