Venezuela leader rules out early poll

Chavez is refusing to hold an early referendum

Thousands of demonstrators marched, chanted, waved flags and banged pots in the Venezuelan capital Caracas as a general strike demanding early elections dragged into its 16th day.

President Hugo Chavez has ruled out calling early elections to end the strike, which has crippled the country's oil industry.

Mr Chavez said discussions about his mandate would not take place before August 2003, when a referendum is due on his presidency.

Troops have been told to follow presidential decrees

Mr Chavez's comments came after the chief of Venezuela's army condemned the strike as sabotage - dealing a blow to opposition hopes of getting the army's support.

The demonstrators plan to march to the tomb of the 19th Century hero Simon Bolivar, saying Mr Chavez has desecrated the South American liberator's memory.

Oil prices rise

Mr Chavez told Spain's La Voz de Galicia newspaper that "the ideal is that the situation be resolved in August 2003 with the referendum which is foreseen by the constitution".

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The Organisation of American States has called on Venezuelans to find a "peaceful democratic constitutional and electoral solution" to the standoff, but did not explicitly call for early elections.

On Tuesday, the United States backed the OAS resolution taken on Monday night.

About 150 demonstrators rallied in support of Mr Chavez in the Colombian capital Bogota on Tuesday.

In Caracas on Monday, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse anti-government protesters blocking several major roads into the capital.

The BBC's Nick Miles in Caracas says that with an opposition protest on Tuesday scheduled to end in a pro-government stronghold, the possibility of further violence is high.

Army intervention

The unrest in what is the world's fifth largest oil exporter, has forced up the price of a barrel of oil by more than 4% amid supply fears.

Executives at the state-run oil company PDVSA said oil production is down by 80% and rejected government claims that oil exports were rising again.

In his first comment since the strike began, Venezuela's army chief General Julio Garcia Montoya gave the clearest sign yet of the armed forces' opposition to the strike.

Monday's strike saw violent clashes

He said the army was "willing to use its full capability to prevent the success of this gamble for an economic and social collapse of the nation".

He described the strike as ''an attack on the vital interests of the nation'' that ''overstepped the boundaries of democratic norms''.

Mr Chavez has described Venezuelans who support the protest as coup plotters, insisting that he will not be forced from office.

The president has told the army to follow nobody's orders but his own.

He said that troops should ignore judges and court rulings and obey only presidential decrees.

Strike leader Carlos Ortega said such talk effectively rendered him a dictator.