Beijing - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for talks with Chinese leaders and the expected signing of several economic deals.

Chavez was scheduled to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao on Wednesday afternoon, following which the two leaders would attend the signing of several joint documents, foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters.

Asked earlier if the documents to be signed in Beijing would include deals on energy and military fighter jets, Jiang said she had "no information" on military trade.

Last week she said discussions were "under way" on possible energy deals, but she declined to give details.

Caracas  - The government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday ordered Human Rights Watch (HRW) director Jose Miguel Vivanco to leave the country "immediately," saying his criticism was part of a plot by the United States against the country.

Just hours earlier, Vivanco had made public a report that criticized Chavez's human rights record. Venezuelan authorities complained that this report constituted an "attack" on the country's institutions.

Caracas - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expelled the US ambassador, acting out of solidarity with his embattled Bolivian counterpart, Evo Morales.

US Ambassador Patrick Duddy had to leave the country within the next 72 hours, Chavez said Thursday night in a televised speech. At the same time, the leftist populist president recalled Venezuela's ambassador to the United States, Bernardo Alvarez.

Duddy arrived in Caracas last year.

Johannesburg - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez was in South Africa on Tuesday for talks with President Thabo Mbeki on strengthening ties between one of the world's largest oil producers and Africa's second-largest consumer of the commodity.

Chavez arrived in South Africa on Monday evening for the three-day visit, his first to the country whose leader, Mbeki, he describes as "my friend."

On the eve of the talks, the South African Foreign Ministry announced the two leaders would sign a major agreement on energy cooperation.

South Africa, Africa's second-largest consumer of oil after Egypt, currently gets most of its oil from the Middle East but is keen to diversify. Venezuela is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.

Caracas  - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he hopes the next government of the United States "respects" the sovereignty of the peoples of the Americas and brings about "true change" in the White House.

"The only thing we aspire to in a new government in the United States is that it respects the dignity of the peoples of our Americas and respects the sovereignty of our peoples, of our governments," Chavez said at a Venezuelan oil field in the Orinoco Basin.

Palma de Majorca, Spain - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived Friday on the Spanish holiday island of Majorca, where he was due to meet King Juan Carlos to normalize relations eight months after the monarch told him to shut up.

Chavez and Juan Carlos were scheduled to hold a one-hour meeting in the Marivent palace in the Majorca capital Palma, where the royal family is on holiday.