Police spokesman Orlin Cerrato said Attorney General Luis Alberto Rubi was riding on a northern highway when assailants opened fire last night. Cerrato did not give a motive for the attack or say whether it was related to Honduras' four-month political crisis. But he speculated it could be an attempt to "provoke unease in the country."

After the June coup, it was Rubi who filed criminal charges against ousted President Manuel Zelaya.

Honduras is also home to violent, well-armed street gangs.

Meanwhile, the interim government in a statement asked members of a commission charged with monitoring implementation of a U.S.-brokered deal to not take sides or make statements that could complicate the dispute, "much less celebrate that one of the sides has unilaterally broken the accord."

The interim leaders appeared to be responding to comments by former Chilean President Ricardo Lagos, who on Saturday said that interim President Roberto Micheletti broke the agreement by unilaterally forming a unity government without Zelaya's input.

Micheletti announced late Thursday that a power-sharing government had been created even though Zelaya, deposed in a coup, had not submitted his list of members.

Zelaya again said yesterday that the pact was dead. "That dialogue was deceiving," Zelaya told Radio Globo.

OAS representatives have met with both sides to try to salvage the accord, but the two have not agreed to more talks.