Venezuela's president toppled

Venezuela's military leadership forced President Hugo Chavez to resign today after a day of violence in which troops and pro-Chavez gunmen clashed with 150,000 opposition protesters.

At least 13 people were killed and 110 wounded in the violence.

Venezuelan troops enraged by the killings rebelled against the president today, seizing key installations and airports to prevent him leaving the country.

Mr Chavez was at the presidential palace with loyalist troops in talks with rebel officers, a retired general said. Mr Chavez's defence minister, Jose Vicente Rangel, resigned and rebel troops seized the government TV station in Caracas.

Armed forces commander General Lucas Rincon has asked Mr Chavez to resign and call elections, armed forces chief of staff Bernabe Carrero Cubero said. "And we are waiting for the president to make that decision."

Mr Chavez had asked him to negotiate "to avoid a bloodbath". "If the National Guard, the army and the marines go at it in the streets, that's what we're going to have".