Caracas (Venezuela), Apr. 18 : Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said that he would like to be good friends with US President Barack Obama, suggesting possibilities of an iminent thaw in hostile relations between the two countries.

According to Fox News, Chavez said: "I'd like to be your friend," while Obama reportedly expressed his thanks, though this couldn''''''''t immediately be confirmed.

Photos released by the Venezuelan government show Obama clasping Chavez''''''''s hand and smiling broadly.

Caracas  - Venezuelan opposition leader Manuel Rosales has gone into hiding and will not turn himself in to the authorities on embezzlement charges, because he thinks he is being prosecuted for political reasons, his party said Tuesday.

Rosales planned to hold on to his position as mayor of the city of Maracaibo and would not leave the country, as he awaits guarantees of a fair trial, said Omar Barboza, a spokesman for Rosales' party Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT).

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.

Caracas  - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday denied having offered a Venezuelan island in the Caribbean as a base for the Russian Air Force.

A senior officer of the Russian Air Force said Saturday that the force was considering temporarily basing long-range bombers on Cuba or in Venezuela.

Cuba alone had four or five suitable bases, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had offered a base on La Orchila island, Major- General Anatoly Shikharev was quoted as saying.

Caracas (Venezuela), Mar.

Caracas  - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday called upon US President Barack Obama to follow the path to socialism, which he termed as the "only" way out of the global recession.

"Come with us, align yourself, come with us on the road to socialism. This is the only path. Imagine a socialist revolution in the United States," Chavez told a group of workers in the southern Venezuelan state of Bolivar.