www.voanews.com VOA News 21 Jan 2003, 16:52 UTC

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has proposed a plan to help end Venezuela's political crisis.

Mr. Carter presented the plan to President Hugo Chavez during a meeting Tuesday in Caracas.

The plan calls for an amendment to Venezuela's constitution that would trigger early elections. It also calls for the country to wait until August 19, halfway through Mr. Chavez's presidency, to decide whether he should stay in power.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner says he plans to present his proposal Friday to a meeting of the so-called Group of Friends of Venezuela - the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Spain and Portugal.

Mr. Carter has been in Venezuela since the weekend to mediate between Mr. Chavez and the Venezuelan opposition.

President Chavez's opponents began a general strike December 2 to force him to resign and call early elections. The walkout has created widespread food and fuel shortages.

On Monday, Venezuelan officials said one person was shot dead and at least 27 others injured following rival street protests between supporters and opponents of Mr. Chavez. It was not clear who fired the shot.

Some information for this report provided by AFP.

www.forbes.com Reuters, 01.21.03, 1:03 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Venezuela's bolivar, battered by the nation's political and economic turmoil, slipped 5.1 percent on Tuesday on the 51st day of an opposition strike against President Hugo Chavez.

The bolivar closed Tuesday trading at an average of 1,849.50/1,853 bolivars to the dollar from Friday's close, according to the Central Bank reference rate. The bank did not publish its reference rate on Monday due to the market holiday in the United States.

Traders said the bolivar dipped to an average of 1,908 to the dollar at the close of Tuesday interbank trading due to strong demand for the U.S. greenback. It fell as low as 1,925 bolivars during trading.

The bolivar has lost about 24.3 percent since the start of the year as markets are rattled by the sharp economic downturn and political conflict between President Hugo Chavez and his foes. The currency has lost about 28.5 percent since the opposition strike began on Dec. 2.

Strikers are demanding that the populist president resign and call immediate elections in the world's No. 5 oil exporter. But the combative former paratrooper has refused and is determined to beat the shutdown. The stoppage has slashed Venezuela's vital oil exports.

www.forbes.com Reuters, 01.21.03, 1:03 PM ET

CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Venezuela's bolivar, battered by the nation's political and economic turmoil, slipped 5.1 percent on Tuesday on the 51st day of an opposition strike against President Hugo Chavez.

The bolivar closed Tuesday trading at an average of 1,849.50/1,853 bolivars to the dollar from Friday's close, according to the Central Bank reference rate. The bank did not publish its reference rate on Monday due to the market holiday in the United States.

Traders said the bolivar dipped to an average of 1,908 to the dollar at the close of Tuesday interbank trading due to strong demand for the U.S. greenback. It fell as low as 1,925 bolivars during trading.

The bolivar has lost about 24.3 percent since the start of the year as markets are rattled by the sharp economic downturn and political conflict between President Hugo Chavez and his foes. The currency has lost about 28.5 percent since the opposition strike began on Dec. 2.

Strikers are demanding that the populist president resign and call immediate elections in the world's No. 5 oil exporter. But the combative former paratrooper has refused and is determined to beat the shutdown. The stoppage has slashed Venezuela's vital oil exports.

sg.biz.yahoo.com Wednesday January 22, 1:11 AM 01-21-03 1156ET

Venezuela '02 Auto Sales Fell 41% On Year To 128,623 Units -2

CARACAS -(Dow Jones)- A total of 128,623 vehicles were sold in Venezuela in 2002, down about 41% from 216,977 units in 2001, the Venezuelan Automobile Industry Chamber reported Tuesday.

Sales were severely affected by a 92% drop in December to 1,627 units as a general strike that began the second day of the month shut thousands of businesses in various sectors including the automotive industry.

For the year, as a whole, the sales were slightly better than predictions made by industry officials who had forecasted an almost 50% drop due to higher interest rates and higher prices, particularly for imports, due to the bolivar's ($1=VEB1920) 46% devaluation in 2002. The currency has since devalued more than 25% this year.

Sales will likely be slow in January as the strike continues, with opposition leaders refusing to lift the action until President Hugo Chavez agrees to call early elections.

Chavez's critics blame his left-leaning policies for the country's deepening economic crisis, as the economy likely contracted about 8% last year amid unemployment of 17% and inflation of 31%.

Chavez has said the country's problems are due to an "economic coup" led by his opponents.

In 2002, General Motors Corp. (GM) led sales with 38,044 units, followed by Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) and Ford Motor Co. (F) with 20,934 and 17,971 vehicles, respectively.

-By Jehan Senaratna, Dow Jones Newswires; 58212 564 1339; jehan.senaratna@dowjones.com

www.morningstar.ca 21 Jan 03(12:52 PM) |  E-mail Article to a Friend By Richard Mably

LONDON (Reuters) - World oil prices set new two-year highs on Tuesday for fear of war in Iraq and then eased as cracks started to appear in a Venezuelan strike that has cut deep into exports to the United States.

U.S. light crude at 1745 GMT was down 21 cents at $33.70 a barrel after setting a fresh high of $34.52 in early electronic trade. London Brent blend eased 39 cents to $30.26 a barrel. President George W. Bush said it was now clear to him that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was failing to comply with U.N. disarmament demands.

"He's delaying. He's deceiving. He's playing hide and seek with inspectors," Bush told reporters at the White House. "It's clear to me now that he is not disarming ... Time is running out."

Oil dealers said the remarks appeared to leave little doubt that Washington was now close to authorising the use of military force against Baghdad.

But early price rises were contained by news from Venezuela that tanker pilots in Lake Maracaibo, a strategic export route, had ended their part in the seven-week-old nationwide strike.

"This is something that helps Chavez. A prerequisite to restart production is to get exports going, so this is a step in the right direction," said George Beranek of Washington's Petroleum Finance Company.

While an end to the tanker pilots' action in Venezuela can be expected to boost exports, shippers said deliveries were not likely to rise rapidly until foreign ship operators began using ports again.

Most of the opposition to President Hugo Chavez extended their strike into a 51st day, aiming to force the leftist leader to resign and call immediate elections.

A spokeswoman for striking oil workers said they intended to send a senior representative to Maracaibo later on Tuesday to try to persuade the pilots not to abandon their action.

"We still have 90 percent of oil workers on strike," she said.

LONG ROAD

Even an end to the strike might not bring lower oil prices immediately.

"It will be a long, hard road for Venezuela even back to 75 percent of previous production capacity," said Geoff Pyne, consultant to Sempra Energy.

"There is still the threat of war in Iraq and stocks are very low. Traders are going to see it as dangerous to sell at this point."

With Venezuelan exports running in recent weeks at just 500,000 barrels a day, a fifth of normal flows, crude stockpiles in the United States are close to 26-year lows.

"A lack of adequate commercial oil stocks in the U.S. and no nearby replacement for lost short-haul crude from Venezuela has left the oil supply chain stretched almost to breaking point," said London's Centre for Global Energy Studies.

"OPEC alone does not have sufficient readily available spare capacity to replace both Venezuela's and Iraq's oil exports, much less to cope with any supply disruptions from other Gulf producers that might result from any prolonged conflict in Iraq," the CGES said in a report to clients.

OPEC's biggest producer Saudi Arabia already is tapping into the world's only significant spare capacity. Industry sources told Reuters at the weekend that Riyadh could be pumping nine million barrels daily by February, up a million barrels a day from December flows.

If OPEC is unable to cover a dual outage from Iraq and Venezuela, the Paris-based International Energy Agency is expected to release some of its emergency strategic reserves for the first time since January 1991 during the Gulf War.

"Were an attack to be launched on Iraq, consuming country governments would have to utilise quickly their abundant strategic oil stocks to ensure adequate supplies," said the CGES.

Oil dealers are counting down toward a major report on January 27 from U.N. weapons inspectors on whether Iraq has met its disarmament commitments.

Chief weapons inspector Hans Blix delivers his judgement to a full U.N. sitting next Monday and the 15-member Security Council evaluates the report on January 29.

Blix spoke to reporters in Athens after a two-day visit to Baghdad. "The Iraqis became aware that the world is disappointed with their declaration," he said of Iraq's 12,000 page dossier.

"We feel the declaration has not answered a great many questions."