Panama City: US President Barack Obama briefly spoke with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro at a regional summit Saturday, telling him Washington was not seeking to threaten Caracas amid rising tensions.
US officials said the two leaders met for a few minutes on the margins of the Summit of the Americas in Panama City, where Maduro used the stage to air his grievances about US sanctions against Venezuelan officials.
During the brief encounter, Obama voiced his support for a peaceful dialogue between Venezuela`s government and the opposition, said Katherine Vargas, a White House spokeswoman.
The US leader also "reiterated that our interest is not in threatening Venezuela, but in supporting democracy, stability and prosperity in Venezuela and the region," Vargas said.
Maduro came to the 35-nation summit to demand that Obama lift a sanctions order against Venezuelan officials that describes Caracas as a threat to US national security.
"I respect you, but I don`t trust you, President Obama," Maduro told the summit, though Obama had already left the summit room to hold bilateral talks with Colombia`s president.
He countered that it was Obama who "threatened" his country.
Fellow leftist leaders from Argentina, Bolivia and Ecuador rallied behind Maduro, as the US-Venezuela spat contrasted with the diplomatic thaw that Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro were pursuing at the summit.
"I am willing to talk with President Obama about this issue with respect and sincerity whenever he wants," he said.
Maduro said he has publicly and privately sought to speak with Obama ever since the Venezuelan leader was elected two years ago, but his US counterpart "never answered the messages that I sent him."
The Venezuelan leftist leader said he has garnered millions of signatures in a petition demanding the removal of the sanctions order, which Obama issued against seven officials accused of committing abuses in an opposition crackdown.
The White House has since qualified the step, saying the use of the word "threat" was standard for such executive orders and that Washington does not really perceive Caracas as dangerous to US security.
The sanctions follow earlier accusations from Maduro, who has charged Washington with backing an opposition plot to overthrow him in a coup that he says would have involved bombing the presidential palace.
The US government has dismissed the charges as baseless.
The sanctions have irritated other Latin American countries.
"The response has been forceful, rejecting the executive order and demanding its removal," Ecuador`s leftist President Rafael Correa said. "Our people will never again accept tutelage, meddling and intervention."
Bolivian President Evo Morales said: "The Venezuelan people along with Latin America and the Caribbean, we are not a threat to anybody."
While Argentine President Cristina Kirchner also criticized the sanctions, she shook hands with Obama at the summit.
