Chavez angry over puppet show

The vice-president led the attack

Venezuela has accused US ambassador Charles Shapiro of "personal irresponsibility" after a comedian satirised President Hugo Chavez at a reception at the ambassador's home.

The male comedian dressed as TV journalist Marta Colomina and performed with a puppet dressed to look like Mr Chavez.

"I cannot conceive of any other ambassador accredited to Venezuela who would stoop to this level," Vice-President Jose Vicente Rangel told the country's Globovision television station.

He added that his criticism was directed at the ambassador personally, and was not intended to signal a break in relations with the US.

"Despite Mr Shapiro, we want good relations with the United States, with its government and with its people," Mr Rangel said.

The embassy neither knows beforehand nor censors what its guests are going to say

US embassy statement

The US embassy said in a statement that only Mr Shapiro, and not guests, spoke for the mission.

It added that it some of the comedian's performance seemed to be in bad taste - but that it did not control what its guests did or said.

"The embassy neither knows beforehand nor censors what its guests are going to say, neither in the case of a guest speaker nor in the case of a comedian," the statement said.

Mr Shapiro was hosting a reception in honour of press freedom day on Tuesday.

He warned of "deteriorating press freedoms" in the country as he hosted journalism associations and unions at his official residence.

Venezuela, an OPEC member, is one of the world's largest oil exporters and supplies a significant amount of petroleum to the US.

Difficult relations

But relations between Washington and Caracas have been tense since the leftist Mr Chavez took power four years ago.

Mr Chavez has regularly irritated the US

He has been a consistent critic of US foreign policy, condemning the US war in Afghanistan and visiting Saddam Hussein in 2000 - making him the first head of state to do so in nearly a decade.

He has strengthened Venezuela's ties with Cuba and Libya.

For its part, Washington was slow to condemn the short-lived coup that toppled Mr Chavez for several days in April 2002.

He accused the US of being complicit in the action.