Chavez extends olive branch

2005-08-30 20:57

Caracas - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Monday he hoped to improve rocky relations with the United States, holding out hurricane aid as an olive branch.

Last week, Chavez offered discount petrol to poor Americans suffering from high oil prices and on Sunday offered free eye surgery for Americans without access to health care - this despite remarks made on television by ultra-conservative American evangelist Pat Robertson, who called for Chavez's assassination.

"We will never lose hope of recovering a better tone, on a rational, diplomatic, political and ... economic level", Chavez told reporters alongside US civil rights activist Jesse Jackson.

"Despite the differences and tense relations, we are willing to continue working with the administration of (US President George W) Bush in the anti-drug fight," he said, weeks after cutting US anti-drug cooperation.

Chavez had earlier offered to send food and fuel to the United States after Hurricane Katrina pummelled the US south, ravaging US crude production.

The leftist leader, a frequent critic of the United States and a target himself of US disapproval, said Venezuela could send aid workers with drinking water, food and fuel to US communities hit by the hurricane.

Shortages

"We place at the disposition of the people of the United States in the event of shortages - we have drinking water, food, we can provide fuel," Chavez told reporters.

Chavez said fuel could be sent to the United States via a Citgo refinery that has not been affected by the hurricane. Citgo is owned by Venezuela's state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).

Jackson is on a three-day visit to Venezuela to meet Chavez, politicians and community leaders.

In the Gulf of Mexico, which accounts for a quarter of total US oil output, 92 percent of crude and 83 percent of natural gas production were shut down due to Hurricane Katrina, which slammed Louisiana and Mississippi, according to US government data.

Venezuela is the fourth-largest provider of oil to the United States, supplying some 1.5 million barrels a day.

- AFP