Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said soldiers roused him from bed, beat his body guards and arrested him in his pyjamas in what he criticised as "a kidnapping".

Mr Zelaya told a local television station yesterday that he was at an airport in San Jose, capital of Costa Rica.

He said he would not recognise any attempt to name a replacement for him following his detention.

Mr Zelaya said he will be meeting with diplomats and stressed he wanted to serve out his term, which ends in early 2010. He called for talks.

Mr Zelaya was detained by army troops early yesterday, shortly before he was to have held a controversial referendum on constitutional reform.

US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton said: "The action taken against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya violates the precepts of the Inter-American Democratic Charter and thus should be condemned by all.

" We call on all parties in Honduras to respect the constitutional order and the rule of law, to reaffirm their democratic vocation and to commit themselves to resolve political disputes peacefully and through dialogue. "

It was also reported that ambassadors of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba were taken hostage during the coup.

Responding to the reports Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez said: "If our embassy were attacked, for example, if our ambassador were kidnapped or beaten, well that military junta of a government that is there, even though it doesn't show its face, would be entering a state of war, a de facto state of war.

"We would have to act, even militarily, we are obligated to do so. I couldn't sit here with my arms crossed, knowing by phone that they are massacring my ambassador or entering the Venezuelan Embassy. No. I have put the armed forces of Venezuela on alert."

Mr Zelaya was elected in 2006 for a non-renewable four-year term but planned a vote asking Hondurans to sanction a referendum to allow him to run for re-election.