Venezuelan President Chavez complains on U.S.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned on Sunday he would lodge a complaint against the United States at the United Nations and other international bodies if the US government failed to act against television evangelist Pat Robertson, who had called for Chavez's assassination.

"If the US government does not take action that it must take, we will go to the United Nations and Organisation of American States to denounce the US government," the Venezuelan leader was quoted as saying by News24.

He added he believed that by failing to act against Robertson, the United States was "giving protection to a terrorist, who is demanding the assassination of a legitimate president".

Robertson caused a diplomatic stir last Monday when he said on the air that if Chavez believed the United States was trying to kill him, "I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it."

Relations between Chavez and the United States, the top buyer of the OPEC nation's oil, have deteriorated since Chavez survived a brief 2002 coup he says was backed by U.S. authorities. Washington says it is not plotting to kill Chavez and denies involvement in the coup, Reuters reminds.

Chavez said on Friday Bush would be to blame if anything happened to him. In the past, he has said Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, would cut sales to the United States if he was assassinated.

A close ally of communist Cuba, Chavez presents his self-proclaimed revolution as an alternative to U.S. policies in the region.

Washington says Chavez is a negative influence who uses oil profits to fund anti-democratic groups in South America while becoming more authoritarian at home.

U.S. civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, visiting Venezuela on Sunday, called Robertson's remarks "immoral" and rejected U.S. government claims against Chavez.

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