TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras?One year after soldiers sent away the president of Honduras at gunpoint, political rulers in the Central American nation have failed to convince many observers that the crisis is over.

The June 28, 2009 removal of wealthy cattle rancher Manuel Zelaya, who swerved to the political left during his presidency, split opinion both in Honduras and internationally.

Many in Latin America, including powerhouse Brazil, refuse to recognize President Porfirio Lobo, who won power in polls held under an unelected interim regime last November and took office in January.

But the United States, the traditional Honduras backer, has now restored economic and military cooperation, after first condemning the coup in one of the region's poorest countries.

"Sadly, Honduras has turned into a political football," Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think-tank in Washington, told AFP by e-mail.

"There have been too many attempts to score political points and too few efforts that give highest priority to the welfare of most Hondurans," Shifter said.

The coup and its aftermath increased tensions on familiar geo-political battlegrounds in the Americas.

It provoked the Organization of American States (OAS) to suspend Honduras?a move which has not been reversed despite pressure from the United States.

"It is time for the (western) hemisphere as a whole to move forward and welcome Honduras back into the inter-American community," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told OAS foreign ministers in Peru earlier this month.

OAS experts are studying the necessary conditions for the return of Honduras but Brazil, which sheltered Zelaya in its embassy in Tegucigalpa in a long showdown following the coup, has urged countries not to rush into readmitting Honduras.

In a major challenge for Lobo's presidency, the killings of a string of journalists and rights activists this year have maintained tensions at home and abroad.

A group of 27 US Democratic lawmakers on Thursday wrote to Clinton to "express our continuing concern regarding the grievous violations of human rights and the democratic order which commenced with the coup and continue to this day."

They called for a US mission to study the situation in Honduras.

The US government supports an official Truth Commission set up to investigate alleged rights abuses surrounding the coup.

But many in Honduras fear that officials who are implicated but still in power could influence that probe.

Rights activists including two Nobel Prize laureates last week set up a rival commission to investigate abuses and responsibility for the coup.

Supporters of Zelaya plan demonstrations to mark the one-year anniversary on Monday.

Zelaya allied himself with Venezuela's firebrand leftist leader Hugo Chavez and angered the country's elite as he sought to change the constitution. His critics accused him of seeking to extend term limits.

Zelaya made two bids to return to Honduras, including a spectacular attempt by airplane, before appearing in Brazil's embassy last September.

He left for the Dominican Republic in January.

Lobo caused a stir earlier this month after saying that he himself might be removed in a coup.

The conservative leader, who is faced with opposition from politicians and business leaders within his camp as he seeks to make peace with the international community, later played down the threat.