Maduro-Machado talks unlikely as opposition avoids Venezuela court call

President Nicolas Maduro has ruled out negotiating with opposition leader Maria Corina Machado after he appeared before Venezuela's Supreme Court, asking the country's top judicial body to ratify his reelection.

He was responding on Friday to Machado's offer of "guarantees and incentives" for a "negotiated transition" of power that would see him leave office, in an interview with AFP news agency as she continues to challenge the July 28 vote.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) has yet to release detailed results from the vote, while the opposition has released what it says are copies of 84 percent of ballots cast, showing an easy win for their candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.

The government says those results are forged.

The Supreme Court summoned all presidential candidates before it, though Gonzalez Urrutia refused to attend.

Maduro did so on Friday, after which he directed a warning to Machado.

"The only person in this country who needs to negotiate with Machado is the public prosecutor," Maduro said after his hearing.

"She should surrender to the courts and answer for the crimes she has committed" in contesting the election result.

She is currently hiding.

Machado seeks foreign interference

Machado called for greater support from the international community.

Speaking to AFP via voice notes, she said the opposition was "determined to move forward in a negotiation."

"It will be a complex, delicate transition process, in which we are going to unite the whole nation," said the 56-year-old Machado, who was barred from running herself against Maduro.

Lawmaker Diosdado Cabello, a Maduro ally, dismissed Machado's offer.

"She is not in a position to negotiate anything," he told reporters as he arrived at the Supreme Court shortly before Maduro.

"Offering conditions, to whom? Here, the CNE, which is the governing body, gave a result: Nicolas Maduro won."

"What the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela says will be the law of the republic, it will be a holy sentence," Maduro said after his hearing.

Fellow left-wing governments from Brazil, Colombia and Mexico noted the verification process undertaken by the court but asked that the CNE "transparently disclose the electoral results."

The CNE ratified Maduro's victory, saying he had earned 52 percent of the votes.