Seeking to cool protests and international outrage, socialist Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said the Supreme Court would review its move to annul the opposition-led congress, which critics decried as a lurch toward dictatorship.
"This controversy is over ... the constitution has won," Mr Maduro said in a televised speech just after midnight.
He was flanked by senior officials on a specially convened state security committee that ordered the top court to reconsider its rulings.
While Mr Maduro, 54, sought to cast the move as the achievement of a statesman resolving a power conflict, his foes said it was a hypocritical row-back by an unpopular government that overplayed its hand.
"You can't pretend to just normalise the nation after carrying out a 'coup'," said Julio Borges, leader of the National Assembly legislature. He publicly tore up the court rulings this week and refused to attend the security committee, which includes the heads of major institutions.
Having already shot down most congress measures since the opposition won control in 2015, the pro-Maduro Supreme Court went further on Wednesday with a ruling it was taking over the legislature's functions because it was in "contempt" of the law.
That galvanised Venezuela's demoralised and divided opposition coalition and brought a torrent of international condemnation and concern ranging from the United Nations and European Union to most major Latin American countries.
The decision to review the Supreme Court's move - and presumably revoke the controversial ruling - may take the edge off protests. Court president Maikel Moreno was due to make an address during the morning and some local media said the tribunal had already eliminated the decision.
But a court spokesman said there was nothing official yet and its website where rulings are posted appeared to have crashed.
Mr Maduro's opponents at home and abroad will seek to maintain the pressure. They are furious that authorities thwarted a push for a referendum to recall Mr Maduro last year and also postponed local elections scheduled for 2016.
Now they are calling for next year's presidential election to be brought forward and the delayed local polls to be held, confident the ruling Socialist Party would lose.
