MOSCOW, June 28 (RIA Novosti) - The military arrested Honduras President Jose Manuel Zelaya on Sunday morning, the same day he vowed to follow through with a referendum that the country's Supreme Court had ruled illegal, CNN reported.

The president was arrested at his residence and transported aboard a military plane to an unknown destination, CNN said quoting the local newspaper La Prensa.

The Associated Press reported that Zelaya had arrived in Costa Rica following the detention by soldiers in his homeland.

Zelaya, a leftist elected in 2005, has found himself pitted against the other branches of government and military leaders over the issue of Sunday's planned referendum, CNN said. It would ask voters to place a measure on November's ballot allowing the formation of a constitutional assembly that could modify the nation's charter to allow the president to run for another term.

Zelaya, whose four-year term ends in January 2010, cannot run for re-election under current law.

The Honduran Supreme Court had ruled the poll illegal, and Congress and the top military brass agreed, but Zelaya had remained steadfast.