MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chavez threatens with unlimited re-election

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced he would promote constitutional changes allowing him to seek an unlimited number of terms in office.

In his Sunday radio and television show, Mr. Chavez also talked about the opposition plans to boycott the coming presidential election late this year.

"If they want to pull a fast one on me, I'll give them one better ... I believe the people will accept that," Chavez said.

The former Army paratrooper claims that the boycott is one of the several options being considered by his opponents "following orders from the United States".

"Washington will be trying to discredit us and will attempt world condemnation arguing that there was no opposition in the December elections" Chavez said.

The Venezuelan leader contends that the United States will seek to prevent recognition of the victory he believes will be his "and so generate violence, death and instability, and justify foreign intervention".

Another option according to Chavez is for the opposition to run a candidate and with "strong media and financial backing" make it look as if he had even chances of winning. The frustrated candidate would then pull out and allege fraud, insisted Chavez.

Under current legislation, Mr. Chavez who has been in office since late 1998 has his last chance of re-election next December 3.

Chavez and the Bush administration have been engaged in a long-running rhetorical war. The Venezuelan leader has accused United States of war mongering and "imperialism" claiming Washington is planning to kill him and invade the country to seize control of the vast oil and gas reserves.

Earlier this year, U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld compared Chavez's rise to power to that of Adolph Hitler and State Secretary Condoleezza Rice described the Venezuelan leader as a "de-stabilizing" force in the continent.