Washington, May 2 (IANS): The US government Wednesday condemned the clashes that took place in the Venezuelan parliament and described the violence as " particularly inappropriate".

Physical clashes broke out in the Venezuelan parliament Tuesday, with a number of legislators getting injured, amid heightened tension over the country's disputed presidential election result. Opposition and ruling party members traded blows during the brawl, with each side blaming the other for starting the violence.

"Let me state clearly, violence has no place in representative democratic system, and is particularly inappropriate within the national assembly," Xinhua quoted State Department spokesperson Patrick Ventrell as saying during a briefing.

"We're deeply concerned by the violence that occurred," said Ventrell, urging all parties to refrain from violence.

On April 15 , Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE) declared Nicolas Maduro to be president elect for the 2013-2019 presidential term, after confirming his victory in the presidential election race held the day before.

Rejecting allegations of fraud as levelled by Henrique Capriles, presidential candidate of the opposition coalition, Maduro was sworn in as the new Venezuelan president April 19.

Washington, which has not openly recognised Maduro as Venezuela 's new president, has been pushing for a recount of the presidential votes instead.