This paper presents a study on the development of high-performance finite elements for geometrically nonlinear analysis of frame structures with curved members. Based on the geometrically exact beam theory, a highly efficient and accurate mixed finite element is developed. A new approach is proposed for constructing the independent internal force field by including major terms satisfying equilibrium conditions in the deformed configuration. An element-level equilibrium iteration procedure is employed for the condensation of element internal degrees of freedom during the nonlinear solution. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the excellent performance of the element developed, and it is shown that even when each structural member is modelled with just one element, accurate solutions can still be achieved.