(CNN) -- Honduras, the country with the world's highest murder rate, is backing proposed talks between its two most violent gangs in search of a truce.

The Mara Salvatrucha and Calle 18 gangs already reached a truce in neighboring El Salvador, and officials there claim the murder rate has dropped dramatically.

Honduran leaders hope for the same.

The two gangs were slated to give separate statements from a prison in San Pedro Sula on Tuesday, announcing the talks and asking forgiveness from the public for the violence.

The bishop of San Pedro Sula, Romulo Emiliani, first revealed the upcoming talks a week ago, and on Monday, Honduran President Porfirio Lobo gave the government's backing.

Lobo said he called Emiliani to "express my congratulations and my appreciation in name of the people of Honduras."

"They want a type of reconciliation with society, trying to change their way of life," Emiliani said, according to the newspaper La Prensa. "Then there is a possibility of a truce -- not today, because nothing is being signed today. They are talking about further ahead, depending on certain factors there may be a truce between the two gangs."

The Organization of American States, through Secretary for Multidimensional Security Adam Blackwell, will also participate in the process.

According to the United Nations, in 2011, Honduras had the highest murder rate in the world, at 91.6 killings per 100,000 people. That same year, El Salvador registered the second-highest murder rate, at 69.2 killings per 100,000. These most recent statistics from the United Nations do not reflect the impact of the gang truce in El Salvador, but officials there say it is significant.

According the Salvadoran government, the number of murders have fallen by 52% since the truce was signed 14 months ago. The average number of killings fell from 13 per day to 6 per day. According to a U.S. State Department travel warning, however, the truce has had little impact on robbery, assaults and other violent crime.

Journalists Elvin Sandoval in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and Merlin Delcid in San Salvador, El Salvador, contributed to this report.