Chavez says U.S. ties would be no warmer with Obama

Thu Jul 17, 2008 1:44am BS

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday
his prickly relations with Washington would not improve even if
Democrat candidate Barack Obama wins the U.S. presidential election in
November.

Chavez, a relentless critic of U.S. foreign policy and President
George W. Bush, advocates weakening the influence of the United States
and calls the nation "the empire."

Chavez told his supporters not to raise their hopes that relations
with the United States would improve if Obama is elected U.S.
president, saying there was little difference between him and
Republican candidate John McCain.

"The two candidates for the U.S. presidency attack us equally, they
attack us defending the interests of the empire," Chavez said at a
meeting of his socialist party.

"Let's not kid ourselves, it is the empire and the empire must fall.
That's the only solution, that it comes to an end."

Obama said earlier in his campaign that he would be prepared to sit
down to talk with Chavez. But in recent weeks he has called the
leftist Venezuelan leader an enemy of the United States and urged
sanctions against him.

Chavez also had previously expressed a hope that the end of the Bush
administration would bring warmer ties between the two countries.

The United States considers Chavez a negative influence in Latin
America and has accused him of being soft on cocaine traffickers and
of having ties to Marxist guerrillas in Colombia.

Although Venezuela is one of America's top crude oil suppliers,
relations between the two countries have deteriorated since a brief
2002 coup against Chavez that Washington initially welcomed.
(Reporting by Patricia Rondon)