TEGUCIGALPA: Interim leaders in Honduras who backed the June ouster of President Manuel Zelaya on Tuesday broke off diplomatic ties with Argentina, which has strongly pushed for the deposed leader to return.

The de facto leaders said in a statement that they were breaking off relations with Argentina on the basis of "strict reciprocity," after Argentina last week expelled the Honduran ambassador over her support for the military coup.

Diplomatic relations would now pass through the Israeli embassy in Argentina, the statement said.

Argentina last Thursday expelled the Honduran ambassador to Buenos Aires, Carmen Eleonora Ortez Williams, and Argentina's President Cristina Kirchner has been among the staunchest defenders of Zelaya's right to return to power.

Kirchner's foreign minister told AFP in Mexico that other countries should do more to help resolve the political crisis in Honduras set off by the June 28 military coup, which was backed by the courts and Congress.

Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana -- part of a delegation from the Organization of American States (OAS) due to travel shortly to Honduras -- met with the Mexican foreign minister Tuesday.