Taipei  - El Salvador's president-elect Mauricio Funes, who has reportedly considered closer trade ties with China, has assured Taiwan of continued relations, it was reported Saturday.

Funes sent an envoy to Taiwan's embassy Friday to deliver his message of support, the Liberty Times reported.

Caracas  - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Monday congratulated fellow-leftist Mauricio Funes for his historic win a day earlier in El Salvador's presidential election.

In a statement issued by the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry, Chavez described the electoral victory as "unobjectionable and resounding," and offered Funes his assistance.

The result "consolidates the historic current that has risen across Latin America and the Caribbean in this first decade of the 21st century," Chavez said, noting the region's swing to the left.

San Salvador, El Salvador  - Mauricio Funes, the leftist presidential candidate in Sunday's El Salvadoran presidential election, knows he will be facing the "myths and fears" about leftist governments in the war-torn Central American country.

In what opinion polls frame as a very close election, Funes seeks to defeat the ruling-party candidate, Rodrigo Avila, in an effort to put an end to a 20-year rule by the right-wing party ARENA.