Chavez denies inviting Hamas to Venezuela

Caracas
President Hugo Chavez denied reports that he invited the Palestinian group Hamas to visit Venezuela, but stressed that relations with the Palestinian people remained strong.

"There's no official invitation," Chavez said on Tuesday during a joint press conference at the presidential palace with visiting Uruguayan President, Tabare Vazquez.

"We have very good relations with the Palestinian people, from the time of (the late Palestinian) leader Yasser Arafat, and we'll continue keeping good relations with those people," Chavez told reporters.

The possibility of a Hamas visit to Venezuela was raised in early February by Brazil's O Estado de Sao Paulo newspaper, which quoted a Hamas spokesperson as its source.

The report stirred controversy, with the international Jewish human rights organisation Simon Wiesenthal Centre urging Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia to bar all visits by Hamas officials.

A Hamas visit to Caracas was especially irritating for the Wiesenthal Centre after it condemned what it considered was an anti-Semitic statement made by Chavez during a visit to Argentina in late December.

Chavez in his speech in Buenos Aires criticised "some minorities (including) the descendants of those who crucified the Christ... who have taken over the world's wealth."

The Venezuelan president later clarified that he had not referred to any particular group in his speech, but to "the powerful and the oligarchs" who have always repressed the people."