* Interpol asked to seize Venezuelan opposition leader

* Rosales says he is victim of Chavez persecution

* Peru's foreign minister scolds Rosales

* Venezuela charges Chavez ally with corruption (Recasts; adds quote, details)

By Brian Ellsworth

CARACAS, April 22 (Reuters) - A Venezuelan court ordered the arrest of opposition leader Manuel Rosales for corruption on Wednesday after he sought exile in Peru saying he was a victim of persecution by left-wing President Hugo Chavez.

The move raises the stakes in Chavez's confrontation with the OPEC nation's opposition leaders, who accuse him of trying to intimidate opponents of his declared socialist revolution.

Speaking for the first time since going into hiding, Rosales slammed Chavez as a "coward" and a "little dictator".

"Everyone in Venezuela knows that I am victim of persecution ordered by Chavez, that all of my rights have been violated," Rosales said in a message from Peru broadcast by Venezuela's opposition-aligned TV station Globovision.