WASHINGTON – (UPDATE) International bodies and heads of states condemned Honduran soldiers' arrest of the country's president Sunday, amid rising tension over a controversial referendum.

President Manuel Zelaya was arrested Sunday by troops who surrounded his home, said a top government aide.

"Troops have taken the president from his home to the air force (base)," the president's personal secretary, Enrique Reina, told reporters.

The European Union was quick to call on the Honduran military to release him.

"The EU strongly condemns the arrest of the constitutional president of the Republic of Honduras by the armed forces," Czech Republic Foreign Minister Jan Kohout told reporters on the sidelines of an international meeting here.

"This action is an unacceptable violation of constitutional order in Honduras," said Kohout, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.

"The EU calls for the urgent release of the president and a swift return to constitutional normality."

Soon after, Costa Rica's public security minister Janina del Vecchio confirmed media reports that Zelaya had been flown to the country.

United States President Barack Obama said he was "deeply concerned" by the events in Honduras and urged all parties to show respect for "democratic norms."

Earlier, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had denounced the arrest of Zelaya, describing it as a "coup d'etat" and suggesting that the United States was implicated.

Speaking in Caracas, Chavez urged Obama to speak out about Zelaya's arrest, saying "the Yankee empire has a lot to do" with developments in Honduras.

Jose Miguel Insulza, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States also issued a statement condemning the coup.

Insulza "severely condemned the coup that a group of soldiers have carried out against the government of President Jose Manuel Zelaya."

The statement was issued from Washington after an emergency meeting of the OAS.

Zelaya's arrest came just hours after he had vowed to ahead with a referendum Sunday, despite it having been ruled illegal by the country's top court, and denounced not just by the military but even by his own party.

Elected in 2006 for a non-renewable four-year term, Zelaya had planned a vote Sunday asking Hondurans to sanction a future referendum to allow him to run for re-election.