Exxon Mobil remains interested in visiting Venezuela and is prepared to send an assessment team there, a source familiar with the company's strategy told Reuters, a day after US President Donald Trump said he might keep the oil company out of the country.

During a White House meeting on Friday alongside other top oil executives, Woods said Venezuela needed to make legal changes and protect investments before Exxon would commit to operating in the country.

Days later, Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he "didn't like Exxon's response," adding that he was inclined to keep the oil major out.

Exxon executives were surprised by the events, the source said, because Woods also told Trump he believed the administration could help solve Venezuela's problems.

Woods said Exxon could send a technical team to the country within weeks to begin evaluating oil infrastructure and other assets.

Exxon Mobil did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Venezuela's interim government has said it was ready to pursue a "new agenda" with the European Union and Britain following talks with their envoys after Nicolas Maduro was abducted by the US.

Venezuela's foreign minister, Yvan Gil, called for "opening channels of dialogue" with the EU, which did not recognise Maduro as the country's legitimate leader.

The EU imposed sanctions on Maduro's inner circle, openly backed the opposition and urged the inclusion of opposition leader Maria Corina Machado in Venezuela's transition.

"We are ready to advance a new, intense work agenda for the wellbeing of...all the people of Europe and of Venezuela," Gil said in a broadcast from the Miraflores presidential palace.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has said that it's "too soon to say" when elections could be held in Venezuela as the country’s controversial opposition leader Maraa Corina Machado is slated to meet US President Donald Trump on Thursday.

Trump has not provided a timeline on elections in the wake of President Nicolas Maduro's abduction.

When asked if Trump has confidence in interim Venezuelan President Delcy Rodriguez, Leavitt said Trump made the "right, realistic assessment" of what actions needed to be taken regarding Venezuela’s leadership. She also said Rodriguez and her team "have been very cooperative with the United States," citing last week's energy deal.

"So we've seen a great level of cooperation, and the president expects that to continue," Leavitt said.

Cuba's leader has reacted defiantly to President Donald Trump's threats to "make a deal" or pay the price in the aftermath of key ally Nicolas Maduro's abducted in a US military raid.

Trump has been ramping up pressure on Cuba, one of the few Latin American countries still run by a leftist administration after Venezuelan leader Maduro's capture on January 3.

"We're talking with Cuba," Trump said aboard Air Force One on Sunday, hours after urging Havana to do a deal to head off unspecified US actions.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel denied being in talks with Washington, saying there are "no conversations with the US government except for technical contacts in the area of migration."

US President Donald Trump will host Venezuelan opposition leader and controversial Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado at the White House, a senior administration official has told the AFP news agency.

Machado has so far been sidelined by Washington after US forces abducted President Nicolas Maduro on January 3, with Trump's administration claiming it would be "running" Venezuela.

Hours after deposing Maduro, Trump said Machado lacked the "respect" necessary to run the country, even though in the run-up to the last election in Venezuela the United States backed her and her proxy candidate for president.

The Trump administration has been working with Maduro's former deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, who is now Venezuela's interim president.
Since Maduro's abduction, Machado has heaped praise on Trump, and has offered to give him her Nobel Peace Prize, an award the US president has long publicly coveted.

Venezuela's Interim President Delcy Rodriguez has added a former bodyguard of her US-abducted predecessor Nicolas Maduro to her cabinet in one of the first ministerial changes of her administration.

Rodriguez appointed Captain Juan Escalona as minister of the presidential office, which manages the leader's agenda and liaises with state agencies.

Escalona was a former aide to Maduro's predecessor Hugo Chavez and then part of Maduro's security team until the latter was abducted on January 3 along with his wife, Cilia Flores, during a US attack on Caracas.

Two China-flagged supertankers that were sailing to Venezuela to pick up debt-paying crude cargoes amid the US oil embargo on the OPEC country have made u-turn and are now heading back to Asia, LSEG shipping data showed.

Following the US announcement last week of a $2 billion deal to export up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil stuck in storage, US President Donald Trump said China would not be deprived of Venezuela's crude.

But the Asian country, the first market of the South American nation's oil, has not received any cargoes since last month as Washington says the embargo remains in force.

The very large crude carriers Xingye and Thousand Sunny had remained anchored in the Atlantic Ocean for weeks, waiting for directions amid the blockade and Venezuela's political crisis, triggered by the US abduction of President Nicolas Maduro.

Pope Leo received Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado in a private audience at the Vatican.

The meeting, which hadn’t been previously included in the list of Leo’s planned appointments, was later listed by the Vatican in its daily bulletin, without adding details.

Machado is touring Europe and the United States after she reemerged in December to accept her Nobel Peace Prize in Norway.

Pope Leo, the first American pontiff, has called for Venezuela to remain an independent country after US forces captured former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from his compound in Caracas and flew him to New York to face federal charges of drug-trafficking. Leo had said he was following the developments in Venezuela with “deep concern,” and urged the protection of human and civil rights in the Latin American country.

Italy wants to remain a key player in Venezuela's energy industry with its national champion Eni, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said, speaking to reporters.