Venezuelan President Chavez changes stance on ethanol

Apr 18, 2007, 0:19 GMT

Porlamar, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday revised his position on ethanol, saying that he is only against fuel alcohol derived from foodstuffs.

He issued the clarification after meeting with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, where ethanol fuel production is a major industry.

On the sidelines of the first South American Energy Summit on the Venezuelan Caribbean island of Margarita, the meeting of the two leaders had been billed as an opportunity for the controversial Chavez to patch up relations with Lula following recent differences over bio-fuels.

In two meetings last month, Lula and US President George W Bush agreed on collaborative efforts to boost production and use of ethanol, derived from sugar cane in Brazil and corn in the US.

At the time, Chavez attacked plans for increased ethanol production, arguing that it would require use of huge tracts of land that are currently being devoted to food crops. Venezuela is a major petroleum exporter, and the leftwing populist Chavez avoided directly criticizing fellow leftist Lula.

'It is not the same to talk about ethanol from sugar cane or ethanol from (the tree) mamona ... as to take corn away from the people and from the food chain to feed cars - a terrible thing that is already generating an impact,' Chavez said Tuesday.

He stressed that ethanol is a 'valid strategy, taking care that it does not affect food,' and proposed to other South American leaders an energy strategy that includes ethanol as an additive to make petrol burn cleaner.

He said that Venezuela could import 200,000 barrels a day of Brazilian ethanol for blending in petrol.

'I would even like to ask - this sounds like a joke - that the United States government allows us to take ethanol from sugar cane with no tariffs or with low tariffs to eight oil refineries operated by Citgo, the United States subsidiary of Petroleos de Venezuela,' Chavez said in Margarita.

He accused 'the international media' of having said wrongly that the Venezuelan government opposes bio-fuels.

Chavez said it is necessary to take measures to face the energy crisis that is 'cooking on a low fire.'

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe announced Tuesday that a natural- gas pipeline linking Colombia's La Guajira province with the Venezuelan port of Maracaibo is set to be operational in July.

The summit is being attended by all but two South American presidents, Peru's Alan Garcia and Uruguay's Tabare Vazquez.