Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Thursday he will not travel to New York for the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly later this month.

In a speech, Maduro said Executive Vice President Delcy Rodriguez would represent Venezuela at the meeting. Maduro attended the UN meeting last year.

Meanwhile, talks between the government and opposition are quieting underway despite the stalling of a formal dialogue mediated by Norway, according to nine sources involved.

The talks involve Socialist Party officials who are seeking an end to U.S. sanctions and strategies to weather them, and opposition leaders who insist that economic recovery is contingent on President Maduro leaving office.

The ongoing meetings, sometimes in a hotel and reaching once-a-week in August, show that the Maduro government continues seeking contact with the opposition even as the dialogue in Norway remains frozen and Venezuela's economy continues to unravel.

The talks began in June and have grown in frequency and attendance since the government in August walked away from the formal Norway talks, according to the sources.

Opposition leader Juan Guaido in January invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency after declaring Maduro's 2018 re-election a fraud. 

The two sides in May opened dialogue mediated by Norway, but talks stalled after the Trump administration announced a new round of sanctions.

(Cover: Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, next to Venezuelan Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez, signs at a balcony at Miraflores Presidential Palace, a document through which his government breaks off diplomatic ties with the United States, during a gathering in Caracas, January 23, 2019. /VCG Photo)