Caracas: Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has lashed back at US President George W Bush calling him a "terrorist" responsible for "genocide."

Bush, a nemesis of the staunch leftist Chavez, on Wednesday had accused Chavez of backing "terrorists" in neighbouring Colombia and fueling an anti-American campaign with his country's oil wealth.

"The president of the United States himself has come out and attacked us and attacked me personally, calling me a demagogue. Well, I am calling him a terrorist and genocidal," Chavez said on his weekly "Alo, Presidente" television and radio show yesterday.

"And now Bush says I have Venezuelans here going hungry," Chavez said, insisting Bush ought to take a look at the economic conditions in the United States.

"Venezuela's people today are better fed than ever," Chavez said. "The people taking hits from their own government are in the United States, which has an economic crisis," Chavez argued.

Venezuela "has squandered its oil wealth in an effort to promote its hostile anti-American vision, it has left its own citizens to face food shortages while it threatens its neighbours," the US president charged.

Bush's sharp criticisms of Chavez came as the White House tried to portray stalled passage of a US-Colombia free trade agreement as critical to curbing the influence of Chavez throughout Latin America.
Source : PTI