The United States has seized a large oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela, President Donald Trump said Wednesday, dramatically escalating tensions between Washington and Caracas.

The move comes amid a huge US naval build-up in the Caribbean, which Venezuela's leftist leader Nicolas Maduro says is aimed at regime change, and strikes on alleged drug boats.

"We've just seized a tanker on the coast of Venezuela, a large tanker, very large -- the largest one ever seized, actually," Trump told reporters at the start of a roundtable with business leaders at the White House.

"And other things are happening, so you'll be seeing that later and you'll be talking about that later with some other people."

US media reported that the tanker was heading for Cuba, another American rival, and was detai

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