Venezuela issued an official protest to neighboring Colombia on Saturday denouncing an alleged cross-border incident involving Colombian soldiers.

The protest, which Caracas made public, said that a 60-man Colombian military unit was "intercepted" just beyond the border inside Venezuelan territory on Friday.

The Colombian soldiers were allegedly stopped 800 meters (yards) on the Venezuelan side of the border in the southeastern state of Apure, the statement read.

Venezuela described the incident as "an act of provocation," and called on Colombia to "immediately halt these violations of international rights and of Venezuelan sovereignty and territorial integrity."

The statement said that Venezuela was concerned because the incident happens at a time the Colombian government of President Alvaro Uribe "is deliberately seeking to destabilize the region."

The protest letter comes just after Interpol confirmed Thursday the authenticity of 38,000 computer files seized from leftist Colombian guerrillas.

The Colombian government says the documents show links between the rebels and the leftist governments of Venezuela and Ecuador.

The computer data was found on laptop computers, hard disk drives and USB memory sticks seized in a March 1 raid by Colombian soldiers on a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) jungle camp just across the border inside Ecuador.

Bogota has said the data proves that FARC is "financed and armed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez."

Chavez on Thursday dismissed the Interpol report as a "clown show" that "doesn't deserve serious comment."

The March raid, which killed the FARC's number two commander, Raul Reyes, sparked a diplomatic crisis with Venezuela and Ecuador deploying troops to their borders with Colombia.