Chavez challenges U.S. with energy summit

energy

PORLAMAR, Venezuela (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will seek to use oil wealth to consolidate regional support for his anti-U.S. politics as he hosts an energy summit of South American leaders on Monday.
But the meeting on the Caribbean tourist island of Margarita comes as rifts have emerged across the continent over ethanol, with Brazil working with Washington to promote the fuel in an effort Chavez says will increase world hunger.
Chavez, who governs atop the hemisphere's largest oil reserves and wins political influence with subsidized exports to neighbors, wants the 12-nation conference to focus on regional integration as a counterweight to the United States.

"Gradually the U.S. empire will end up a paper tiger and we the peoples of Latin America will become true tigers of steel," Chavez said on the eve of the summit.
Security is tight for almost a dozens heads of state.
In the last few days, gray military vessels have churned through crystalline waters and helicopters have clattered above sunbathers on the resort island that is popular with Venezuelan vacationers for its white-sand beaches and VAT-free stores.
Local authorities have also been sprucing up the island, repainting street markings and replacing roadside lampposts. Continued...
© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved