The new opposition-dominated congress on Wednesday swore in three lawmakers barred by the Supreme Court from taking their seats, setting up a confrontation with the ruling socialists in this oil-exporting nation mired in deep economic troubles.
 
The three had not been seated Tuesday when the opposition took control of the National Assembly for the first time in 17 years but congressional leaders swore them in Wednesday as the body's first act of official business.

Socialist lawmakers stormed out, saying the defiance to the high court would automatically void of constitutional legitimacy any laws passed by the new legislature.

"Confrontation is coming. Confrontation is inevitable," warned Diosdado Cabello, the legislature's previous president and the country's second-most powerful socialist leader.

The high court said its order preventing the lawmakers from the remote state of Amazonas from taking their seats was to give justices time to look into allegations of electoral fraud.

The move enraged the opposition, which called it an attempt by judges loyal to President Nicholas Maduro to undermine the opposition's landslide victory in legislative elections last month. Maduro's foes won by a single seat a two-thirds majority in congress that would give it the power to censure Cabinet officials and even rewrite the constitution.

The Supreme Court has never ruled against the ruling socialist party, and opposition leaders charge that it has become an extension of the executive branch.