Venezuela has neither accepted nor rejected apologies from the United States. Hugo Chávez' Government is waiting for the outcome of an investigation the United Nations is carrying out on the detention of Venezuelan Foreign Affairs minister Nicolás Maduro in New York airport. After that, Hugo Chávez administration is to determine the actions it is to take "in the face of such a serious violation of the international law."

President Chávez made these remarks in an interview with TV channel Promar, in northwestern Lara state. He ensured he was waiting for Maduro to arrive in Venezuela "in order to assess the moves we are going to adopt."

Meanwhile, in a phone interview with state-run TV channel Venezolana de Televisión, Maduro said: "There is no need to rush. We have to send a reply in accordance with the seriousness required to handle foreign policy. Let us wait for the outcome of the UN investigation and for our assessment to adopt a position."

Maduro branded his detention late on Saturday as a "retaliation" following Chávez' speech before the UN General Assembly, where the Venezuelan ruler called his US counterpart George W. Bush "drunk" and "devil."

Maduro declined to clarify whether he refused to meet the security controls in place in the airport, as sources with the US State Department claimed.

On Sunday, for the second consecutive day, the US State Department and the White House apologized for the incident. But sources at the White House make Maduro responsible for the affair, claiming that he "would not fulfill identification requirements for high ranking political officials from foreign countries."