A trio of foreign mediators -- ex-leaders of Spain, Panama and the Dominican Republic -- said in Caracas on Thursday they are seeking "national dialogue" in Venezuela to pull the country back from the brink of chaos.

"I am asking the international community to back this goal of national dialogue and we are going to fix an agenda within a reasonable period," the team's leader, former Spanish prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, told a news conference.

He spoke after the trio met with Venezuela's embattled President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leaders.