'The dog says in a cynical way that he knows no one who is threatening Venezuela, so he does not know himself. We should give the little dog a mirror so that he can see his face,' Chavez said. 'I'm sure he does not know the devil either.'
Speaking to university students in Cua, outside Caracas, Chavez insisted that Venezuela would continue to pursue its right to buy defensive weapons, which he said was an expression of sovereignty.
He was reacting to comments at a meeting in Managua, Nicaragua by Rumsfeld, who suggested that Venezuela's neighbours are worried that arms being purchased by the Chavez government could get into the hands of Latin American guerrilla movements.
Chavez pointed out that only Colombia among Venezuela's neighbours has active guerrilla armies, so he said it should be up to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to complain.
'This war dog is talking for him,' Chavez said. 'I publicly ask President Alvaro Uribe before the world to speak up about this and to clarify it for me, because someone else is talking for him. They are talking for Colombia.'
Last week, Chavez spoke to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, calling Bush the 'devil' and joking about a smell of sulphur at the podium where Bush spoke the day before.
