(VOVworld)- Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro on Sunday rejected early elections as a way out of a spiraling crisis that has led to widespread shortages, soaring inflation and mass protests.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro

He said on his weekly television program that the opposition alliance Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) needs to give up its demands for holding an early general election because it’s not stipulated in the constitution. His comments came a day after his leftist government and the opposition agreed on a "road map" for negotiations to defuse a potentially explosive crisis. No reference to early elections was made in the joint statement issued at the end of the Vatican-backed talks, but leaders of the main opposition coalition portrayed it as opening the way to elections as a solution to the political impasse.