New York ? Venezuela’s foreign minister said he was illegally detained for 90 minutes at a New York airport Saturday by U.S. authorities whom he accused of treating him abusively and attempting to frisk him.

U.S. and U.N. officials called the incident regrettable but said Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro had been identified for “secondary screening” – an added security check that can kick in for a variety of reasons.

“We were the object of an illegal detention by the U.S. government,” Maduro told reporters at Venezuela’s mission to the U.N. “We were detained during an hour and a half, threatened by police of being beaten.”

Maduro said the authorities at John F. Kennedy International Airport at one point ordered him and other officials to spread their arms and legs and be frisked, but he said they forcefully refused.

He said his passport and ticket were retained for a time and finally given back to him. But he said the incident prevented him from traveling home Saturday.

Homeland Security spokes-man Russ Knocke denied that Maduro was mistreated.

The incident comes as tensions between the two countries took a particularly confrontational turn. Both Maduro and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez were in New York this past week attending the yearly U.N. General Assembly, where Chavez called President Bush “the devil” during his speech and criticized him during a stop in Harlem.

“We can confirm that a regrettable incident occurred at John F. Kennedy airport for which the U.S. government has apologized to Foreign Minister Maduro and the government of Venezuela,” U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said.