Washington  - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissed suggestions Wednesday that Russian naval exercises in the Caribbean Sea posed a threat to the US military hegemony in the Western Hemisphere.

"I just don't think there's any question about who has the preponderance of power in the Western Hemisphere," Rice said.

Two Russian warships, a destroyer and a cruiser along with support vessels, arrived in Venezuela on Tuesday to carry out joint naval exercises next week. They are the first Russian naval activities in the Western Hemisphere since the end of the Cold War.

Caracas - Candidates allied with President Hugo Chavez won a majority of states in Venezuela's local elections Sunday, but the opposition took the capital city and the two most populous states.

The National Electoral Council said preliminary data gave the opposition victories in the states of Zulia, Miranda and Nueva Esparta, as well as the mayor's office of Caracas.

Council president Tibisay Lucena said the results in the states of Carabobo and Tachira were too close to call until all the votes could be counted.

She said the preliminary results were based on 95.6 per cent of the votes cast.

Caracas  - Voting in Venezuelan regional elections, viewed by many as a key test of support for President Hugo Chavez and his policies, started early Sunday.

Long lines had already begun to form before 6 am (1030 GMT) at voting stations in Caracas and other cities in this South American country. About 17 million people are eligible to vote for 22 governors and more than 300 mayors.

Chavez, who has pushed a left-wing populist agenda since taking power in 1999, has campaigned heavily for his preferred candidates in this race, after losing a referendum to amend the country's constitution in December 2007.

One of the amendments would have removed term limits for the president of Venezuela.

Caracas - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez removed the Venezuelan consul in the US city of Houston, after the diplomat moved the consulate offices without authorization.

Chavez admitted late Monday that what happened was a "mistake," although he denied that Venezuelan diplomatic officials had been expelled by the United States.

Washington (dpa) - The US has cancelled the diplomatic visas of Venezuelan diplomats at the consulate in Houston after the South American country moved its Texas offices without proper authorization from the US State Department, a deputy spokesman said Monday.

The Venezuelan government had requested authorization to move its consulate in Houston to new office space, but proceeded to move into the space before getting the okay from the US government, deputy State Department spokesman Robert Wood said.

Caracas - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez congratulated US president-elect Barack Obama Wednesday on his "historic" win and said the time had come for the two countries to establish new relations.

Chavez emphasized Caracas' will to "build, on the basis of absolute respect for sovereignty, a constructive bilateral agenda for the welfare of the Venezuelan and the US people," according to a statement issued by the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry.

"The historic election of an African American to lead the most powerful nation in the world is symptomatic of a changing era that has been conceived in South America and could be knocking on the doors of the United States," he said.