CARACAS - At least 19 prisoners have been killed in the last three days in one of Venezuela's deadliest prison clashes in years, Interior Minister Tareck El Aissami said Tuesday.

The clashes first broke out between two rival prison gangs Sunday afternoon in El Rodeo prison some 35 kilometers from the capital Caracas after visits to the prison by the inmates' relatives, El Aissami told a local television.

President Hugo Chavez has asked the relevant government authorities to deal with the situation, which also have left at least 22 injured from the violent clashes by armed prisoners.

El Aissami said it was a "regrettable" incident and ratified the commitment by the national government to move forward with plans for a "humanization of the Venezuelan prisons" which include naming a minister to be in charge of the penal system.

"As we have said on a number of occasions, we are ratifying these plans. The Venezuelan penitentiary system is part of the commitments which our government is moving ahead with. We have done an important part of the work already but  still have a lot to do," said the minister.

The rivalry between the different groups in the prison, which is located in the north-central state of Miranda started after visiting hours on Sunday. Among the dead were eight members of a religious group that had tried to mediate in the conflict but then were murdered instead, local press reported.

The inmates had during the past eight days kept workers at the prison hostage amid demands that the current prison director is replaced. Venezuela's prisons house 12,000 inmates and are overpopulated by 275 percent, according to the local non- government organization Venezuelan Prisons Observatory.