President Nicolas Maduro says he would not oppose "direct dialogue" with the United States, after a round of preliminary meetings in Mexico City with the Venezuelan opposition.

However, for the negotiations to reach a potential agreement, Maduro has demanded that sanctions imposed by the U.S. and Europe must be lifted. 

The talks are aimed at overcoming Venezuela's acute political and economic problems with representatives from Norway acting as facilitators.

Maduro expanded on the nature of the meetings with the opposition saying "what we demanded was an end to violence. They (opposition) agreed here to put an end to all conspiracies, they agreed this here.” 

Despite this, the Venezuelan President once again hit out at top U.S. ally in the region, Colombia, for its destabilizing role saying “we have worrying information from Colombia, we will make it known in the following days about (Colombian President) Ivan Duque's conspiracy to sabotage this discussions (with the opposition), to sabotage the negotiation in Mexico with actions, with hit men and criminals.”

In a joint statement, the two sides said they would meet again from September 3-6 without specifying where.