VENEZUELA’S’s newly elected constitutional reform body was set to convene “within hours” after Washington mooted President Nicolas Maduro’s overthrow on Tuesday.

National TV carried the announcement by Vice-President Tareck El Aissami, who chairs the counter-terrorism task force against opposition regime-change violence that has left more than 120 dead in four months.

Mr Aissami said the results of Sunday’s election to the national constituent assembly, which was boycotted by the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (Mud) coalition, had been validated and the 545 delegates would soon meet.