Finance plan: Hugo Chavez
Chavez takes soft oil finance plan to Opec
A Venezuelan scheme that offers Caribbean countries oil on advantageous terms inspired President Hugo Chavez's proposal for Opec to help poor nations deal with high oil prices, the country's Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said.
Earlier this week Chavez proposed Opec finance social development programmes for poor countries and increase its diplomatic activity, seeking to put his self-styled socialist revolution on the global stage, but gave few details.
However Maduro said the plan, which will be unveiled at this week's Opec heads-of-state meeting in Riyadh, was inspired by the Petrocaribe accord, which Venezuela launched in 2005.
It provides oil and fuel on advantageous terms to Caribbean countries, with participants such as Jamaica and the Dominican Republic offered soft financing terms and the option to pay their bills in-kind with products like bananas and nutmeg.
"This experience with Petrocaribe convinces us that it is possible to construct formulas of solidarity, based on energy," Maduro told Reuters, when asked about Chavez' plan.
"Those countries with strength in the energy sector can contribute with this formula of solidarity to the development and the improvement of the economic capacity and quality of life of those peoples which need it most in the south of the planet....this is the central proposal," he added.
Chavez will unveil details at the Opec meeting, where they will be discussed further by member countries, Maduro added.