LIMA, Peru (AP) - A Venezuelan court has ordered the arrest of a key opponent of President Hugo Chavez who fled to Peru and is seeking political asylum there, prosecutors in Caracas said Wednesday.

In Peru’s capital, Venezuelan opposition leader Manuel Rosales made his first public appearance in more than three weeks, calling the charges against him trumped-up and heaping ridicule on Chavez, his political rival in 2006 presidential elections.

"A democrat doesn’t turn himself in to a dictator," Rosales said. He called Chavez a "coward" and vowed to "keep confronting this abusive totalitarian regime, which violates human rights."

Peruvian Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Garcia Belaunde said after Rosales’ televised speech that he should abstain from making political declarations because "that would violate the very nature of the asylum."