VENEZUELA’S foreign minister has urged the United Nations to “counteract” the US’s “false argument” that his country is on the brink of war, warning that the US had helped orchestrate months of violent opposition protests.

At the UN headquarters in New York on Monday, Samuel Moncada warned of a CIA-organised regime change backed by a “wave” of opposition violence.

“We are alerting the world to the North American manoeuvres for the destruction of Venezuelan democracy,” Mr Moncada said.

“We need to work with the UN in distinct areas of cooperation, in terms of respect, to counteract the whole false argument they have constructed of Venezuela as a country at the point of war.”

Mr Moncada also warned that another “wave of violence” will hit Venezuela this week as the opposition has called for more protests and a repeat of last week’s “civic strike” against Sunday’s elections to a constituent assembly.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has formed the 545-seat assembly to propose amendments to the constitution with the aim of solving the country’s current economic and political crisis.

The decision has been condemned by critics of Venezuela’s government who view the new body as a way of bypassing the National Assembly where the country’s right-wing holds a majority.

Opposition figures have responded with large-scale protests which have seen buildings destroyed, over 100 people killed and many more injured in an attempt to halt the elections.

Mr Maduro and his government have repeatedly accused the US of involvement in the regime change protests.

On Thursday CIA Director Mike Pompeo revealed he had recently been in Colombia and Mexico “trying to help them understand the things they can do to achieve a better result for their corner of the wrld and our corner of the world.”

He added: “Whenever you have a country that big, and with economic capacity like Venezuela, the US has a profound interest for that country to be as stable and democratic as possible.”

Mr Moncada later accused the CIA chief on Twitter of working with Colombia and Mexico “to overthrow the democratic government of Venezuela.”