VENEZUELAN acting-President Delcy Rodriguez used her first state of the union message on Thursday to advocate for opening its crucial state-run oil industry to more foreign investment, following the Trump administration’s pledge to seize control of Venezuela’s crude sales.

For the first time, Ms Rodriguez laid out a vision for the country, two weeks after the United States kidnapped President Nicolas Maduro.

Under pressure from the US to co-operate with its plans for reshaping Venezuela’s sanctioned oil industry, Ms Rodriguez declared that a “new policy is being formed.”

She urged foreign diplomats in attendance to tell investors abroad about the changes, and called on lawmakers to approve oil sector reforms to secure access for foreign firms.

“Venezuela, in free trade relations with the world, can sell the products of its energy industry,” she said.

The Trump administration has said it plans to control future oil export revenues.

Acting-President Rodriguez described cash from the oil sales flowing into two sovereign wealth funds, one to support crisis-stricken health services and another to bolster public infrastructure, much of which was built under Mr Maduro’s legendary predecessor, Hugo Chavez, but has since deteriorated.

While Ms Rodriguez slammed the kidnapping of Mr Maduro and referred to a “stain on our relations,” she also promoted the resumption of diplomacy with the US.

She said: “Let us not be afraid of diplomacy.

“I ask that politics not be transformed, that it not begin with hatred and intolerance.”

Her speech was delivered as Venezuela’s Nobel Prize-winning opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was meeting US President Donald Trump in the White House.

Ms Machado was pictured presenting President Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize medal, even though he has questioned her credibility to take over her country after the removal of President Maduro.

The Nobel Institute has said Ms Machado could not give her peace prize — an award he has publicly coveted — to Mr Trump.

After leaving the White House, she told reporters: “I presented the president of the US the Nobel Peace Prize as a recognition for his unique commitment to our freedom.”

President Trump confirmed later on social media that Ms Machado had left the medal for him to keep and said it was an honour to meet her.

“She is a wonderful woman who has been through so much. Maria presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done,” President Trump said in his post. “Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect.”