MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuela splits up landed estates.

Venezuela has declared a huge British-owned cattle ranch to be state property and handed out permits for local farmers to take over the land.

The agriculture minister held a ceremony at El Charcote ranch, saying it was officially under state control. The state governor said 140 permits had been handed out so poor families could start work on the 32,000-acre estate.

Agroflora, the local subsidiary of British owner Vestey Group, said it would appeal against the seizure. The firm's employees are still working on the land.

The group has operated the ranch, in central Cojedes state, for decades. But officials said as property documents did not prove the land belonged to the group, it therefore belonged to the state.

The government is taking action against what it calls latifundios, or large rural estates, which it says are lying idle. The Vestey group denies the land is idle, and says it has complied fully with Venezuelan law. The firm has been given two months to appeal.

The British group says it has documents proving the ownership of the land back to 1830 and insists the farm, which employs 300 workers, provides meat solely for the Venezuelan market.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says many large farms were illegally acquired and there is no compensation for lands which are deemed to belong to the state. If ownership cannot be proved by documents dating back to 1830, the land is liable to be seized.

Mr Chavez has vowed to push ahead with a "war to the death against large landed estates, regardless of who the alleged landholders are". Venezuela's National Lands Institute has taken steps towards seizing 1.48million acres already this year