Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Caracas to back opposition leader Juan Guaido's calls for early elections as international pressure increased on President Nicolas Maduro to step down.

Mr Maduro addressed a rally in Caracas on Saturday and proposed bringing forward parliamentary elections, scheduled for 2020, to this year, as he sought to damp down demands for presidential elections.

"You want elections? You want early elections? We are going to have parliamentary elections," he said. "There is no dictatorship in Venezuela, nor will there be."

He said the constituent assembly, which he controls, would debate ordering elections in the rival national assembly, which is opposition controlled and headed by Mr Guaido.

The suggestion will likely have little impact, however, as he ignored Mr Guaido and his supporters' demands to resign, and stopped short of the four EU nations' demand for presidential elections.

It certainly had little impact on the tens of thousands of anti-Maduro demonstrators in the streets.

Protests were held across the country, and remarkably, as the day edged towards evening, there was no reported violence, and no tear gas fired.

Wearing t-shirts saying "Let's take back our country" and holding aloft banners and placards criticising Mr Maduro, they processed through Caracas demanding change.

Nakary Coelho, 28, broke down in tears, Venezuelan flag around her neck, as she told why she was supporting Mr Guaido.

"I want my country to be free, and I want freedom to be the way here again," she told The Telegraph.

"There is too much suffering, and we have to bring democracy back. Today we are doing it."