a dozen officials after the emergency meeting. "Constitutional victory!"

Opposition leaders were quick to condemn the announcement as a ploy that did little to alleviate the crisis.

"Let's be absolutely clear," said Freddy Guevara, first vice president of the National Assembly. "A revision of a decision that leaves everything like before doesn't resolve a coup."

The three-hour meeting capped an extraordinary day in which Venezuela's chief prosecutor and long-term loyalist of the socialist government broke ranks and denounced the court ruling.

Luisa Ortega Diaz said it was her "unavoidable historical duty" as the nation's senior judicial authority to condemn the ruling against the opposition-controlled National Assembly as a "rupture" of the constitutional order.

"We call for reflection so that the democratic path can be retaken," she said to the loud applause of aidesaround her.

Mr Maduro convened the National Security Council seeking to calm the political uproar, although at least one key member refused to attend. About a dozen officials were present at the session, but among those notably absent was congress president Julio Borges, who said the meeting was a circus act created for a convenient photo opportunity by the person the opposition blames for the country's troubles.

"In Venezuela the only dialogue possible is the vote," Mr Borges said.

Mr Maduro, dressed in black and waving a small blue book containing the Venezuelan constitution early in the televised meeting, likened the international condemnation of this week's Supreme Court decision to a "political lynching".

On Friday, troops from the National Guard fired buckshot and swung batons at students protesting in front of the