Caracas  - A Venezuelan court Wednesday issued an international arrest warrant against opposition leader Manuel Rosales, who fled to Peru last week.

The court justified the warrant for Rosales, who is a fierce opponent of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, by arguing the 56-year-old former mayor of Maracaibo was avoiding a trial on corruption charges.

At the same time the authorities asked Interpol to assist the politician's arrest, who claimed political asylum in Peru.

In a television interview Rosales sharply attacked Chavez, despite warnings by Peruvian authorities to refrain from political statements.

Rosales called Venezuela's head of state a "dictator" and a "coward" who was pursuing a witch-hunt against him by using forged documents.

The current Venezuelan government was the "most corrupt and most criminal" in the country's history, he said.

Rosales, who claims he fled his country of of fear of an unfair trial, was governor of the oil-rich Zulia province from 2000 to 2008. In the 2009 presidential elections he ran against Chavez as candidate for the opposition Un Nuevo Tempo party.

He lost against the incumbent with about 37 per cent of the vote.

Venezuela's authorities accuse Rosales of "illicit enrichment" during his time as governor. (dpa)