Washington DC - The US on Tuesday denounced an arrest warrant in Venezuela for the opposition presidential candidate and warned of further action against President Nicolas Maduro after the seizure of his plane.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the US and its allies condemned the "unjustified arrest warrant" of Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who says he won the July presidential election, which was internationally condemned for irregularities.

"This is just another example of Mr. Maduro's efforts to maintain power by force," Kirby told reporters.

The US, which has pressed Venezuelan authorities to release detailed vote tallies, on Monday seized Maduro's plane in the Dominican Republic.

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State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that the US will keep taking action against Maduro for actions that "long predate his most recent anti-democratic action."

"There are a number of things that we have called on him to do – to stop cracking down on dissent, to release the actual tally sheets, which he still has not done, and to get Venezuela back on its democratic path," Miller said.

"He has not shown a willingness to do so and so, in coordination with our partners, we are considering a range of options to demonstrate to Maduro and his representatives that their illegitimate and repressive actions in Venezuela have consequences."

The US Justice Department said Monday that Maduro's government bought the aircraft for $13 million in defiance of US sanctions through a shell company.

The foreign ministry in Caracas accused the US of a "criminal practice that cannot be described as anything other than piracy."

Former president Donald Trump in 2019 declared Maduro, a leftist presiding over a crumbling economy, to be illegitimate and slapped sweeping sanctions as the US shifted recognition to an opposition leader, who ultimately failed to take control.

President Joe Biden's administration reached a deal in which it agreed to ease sanctions if Maduro allowed free elections.

It snapped back most sanctions after becoming convinced that Maduro would not follow through, although US oil giant Chevron notably still has permission to do business in Venezuela.

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Trump, who is running for president again in November, on Tuesday referred to the previous deal and said that Biden had made the US a "laughing stock."

"Maduro's plane has just been siezend (sic) by the U.S. That's OK, he can now go out and get a much bigger and better one with all the money we pay to Venezuela for oil that we don't need," he wrote on his Truth Social platform.