CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN) -- The Venezuelan Supreme Court
                  demanded Thursday that President Hugo Chavez respect the judiciary,
                  in an apparent response to what critics called a veiled threat of violence
                  from the president earlier in the week.

                  Meanwhile, opposition legislators balked at Chavez's request for emergency
                  powers to pass an economic package, saying he is seeking a blank check to
                  rule by decree.

                  The dispute exacerbated tensions between Chavez, inaugurated February 2,
                  and the opposition-dominated Congress, which has already challenged his
                  plan to set up a popular assembly to rewrite the constitution.

                  Some opposition congressmen said they feared that the former paratrooper,
                  whose nationalist and populist approach enjoys strong support among
                  Venezuela's poor, was trying to precipitate a legislative impasse to cast
                  Congress in a bad light.

                  "It's possible he sent this Pandora's box so that it cannot be approved
                  quickly, and then (he can) say, 'There you have it, Congress won't give me
                  the powers,'" said Henry Ramos, parliamentary head of center-left
                  Democratic Action, the largest party in Congress.

                  Chavez vows to 'take to the streets'

                  On Monday, Chavez said he and the people would "take to the streets" if
                  the Supreme Court tried to block his plan for a national referendum on
                  whether to create a new constitution.

                  Chavez's comments drew a flurry of criticism. Opponents said he was
                  heading toward authoritarian rule. Chavez led a failed coup attempt against
                  the government seven years ago.

                  "The Supreme Court, in ratifying its condition as the fundamental guarantor
                  of the rule of law, reiterates its demand for respect and collaboration
                  between the branches of public power," said the court's president, Cecilia
                  Sosa.

                  On Wednesday, lawmaker Generoso Mazzocca called for Chavez's
                  impeachment if he fails to honor a Supreme Court ruling, expected within
                  weeks, on the proposed referendum.

                  Attorney General Ivan Dario Badell said Thursday that he would act to
                  defend Venezuela's democratic institutions "if the Supreme Court asks me
                  to."

                  Chavez's decree calling for the referendum asks voters to give him the right
                  to set the rules for choosing members of an assembly to rewrite the
                  constitution. The vote is set for April 25.

                  Opposition forces have brought three lawsuits before the Supreme Court
                  questioning the decree's legality.

                  Level of confrontation increasing

                  After his December landslide victory in one of the most polarizing campaigns
                  in Venezuelan history, Chavez made an impassioned plea for national
                  reconciliation.

                  But critics say his discourse in recent weeks has been increasingly
                  confrontational.

                  "We must be conscious of the seriousness of the situation. We are witnessing
                  very obvious symptoms of an attempt to do away with the rule of law,"
                  former presidential candidate Eduardo Fernandez said in Thursday's edition
                  of the El Universal newspaper.

                  Chavez has said he needs a fast-track bill to pull the oil-dependent economy
                  out of a deep recession and slash a deficit of about $9 billion.

                  The so-called Enabling Law presented to Congress on Wednesday would
                  let Chavez enact a number of bills without waiting for the typically laborious
                  congressional approval.

                  While congressmen said they were prepared to support some of Chavez's
                  proposals, such as a series of tax changes, they balked at the number of
                  issues covered by his request.

                  "If you look at this law closely, they (the government) are practically asking
                  us to issue a kind of blank check to do everything," Ramos said.

                  But Chavez backer Aristobulo Isturiz of the leftist Fatherland For All party
                  said, "These are measures which cannot wait for the whole process of
                  drafting laws, because the country would collapse."

                           The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.