WASHINGTON: The Trump administration soon will allow Venezuela to sell oil now subject to US sanctions, with the revenue initially dedicated to basic government services such as policing and health care and subject to Washington’s oversight, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday.

The United States will retain control in the short term to ensure the oil revenue is used to stabilise Venezuela, Rubio said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

“The funds from that will be deposited into an account that we will have oversight over,” Rubio said, adding that the US Treasury would control the process. Venezuela, he said, “will spend that money for the benefit of the Venezuelan people.”