NAM summit backs Maduro

The Non-Aligned Movement wrapped up a summit Sunday in Venezuela with an expression of support for its embattled host, President Nicolas Maduro, and scathing attacks on US "interventionism" around the world.

The 120-member group issued a statement at the end of the two-day meeting calling for peace, urging world powers not to meddle in other countries' affairs and voicing concern over violence in Syria, Iraq and the Palestinian Territories.

The 190-page document also urges support for "the struggle against terrorism, for solidarity with refugees in northern Africa, and the Venezuelan people's right to peace," Maduro told a press conference.

Founded 55 years ago to give a greater voice to countries squeezed in the power struggle between the United States and Soviet Union, the Non-Aligned Movement has struggled to stay relevant since the end of the Cold War.

Just a handful of heads of state or government attended the summit on the Caribbean island of Margarita, though organizers did not say exactly how many.

But it was a key diplomatic encounter for Maduro, who has been left increasingly isolated as Venezuela's oil-dependent economy has skidded into crisis amid a collapse in global crude prices, fueling calls for his ouster.

The leftist leader, who accuses the United States of backing opposition attempts to remove him in a "coup," emphasized that the summit had backed his government's condemnation of US sanctions that declare Venezuela a threat to US national security.

"It's a total economic war; we will be winning it," Maduro insisted at the closing event.

The White House says that language is a formality for imposing targeted sanctions, but Maduro has lambasted it as alarmist.

Venezuela took over the rotating presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement from Iran at the meeting. It will hold it for the next three years.

Maduro looks keen to recast the group as a bulwark against "interventionism" and "neo-colonialism," analysts say.

Both words were oft-invoked at the summit.

Syria had harsh condemnation for the United States after a US-led coalition strike killed dozens of Syrian soldiers Saturday.