Venezuela referendum pact will be signed Thursday

27 May 2003 22:30:31 GMT (Recasts, adds U.S. reaction, paragraph 5, Chavez quotes, paragraph 9)

CARACAS, Venezuela, May 27 (Reuters) - Venezuela's government and opposition will sign an accord on a possible referendum on Hugo Chavez's presidency on Thursday which offers the hope of a peaceful solution to their long-running conflict, the chief international mediator said Tuesday.

"The signing will take place Thursday ... I believe that this will help to improve the political climate," Organization of American States Secretary General Cesar Gaviria told reporters in Caracas.

After more than a year of often violent feuding over his rule, left-winger Chavez's government and its foes last week reached an accord in which they accepted the idea of a referendum after Aug. 19. They also agreed to shun violence and support a plan to disarm their supporters.

The agreement was welcomed Tuesday by the six-nation "Group of Friends" -- Brazil, the United States, Chile, Mexico, Spain and Portugal -- which had backed Gaviria's efforts to achieve a solution to the crisis in the world's No. 5 oil exporter.

"We think it's important they've taken this step," U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington.

Venezuelan opposition leaders, who accuse Chavez of ruling like a dictator, say they fear he may still try to avoid a referendum.

After Aug. 19, which marks the halfway point of Chavez's term, Venezuela's constitution allows for the holding of a recall vote on the president's rule.

But the accord, which recognizes this constitutional right, does not automatically guarantee a referendum. His opponents must first collect signatures from 20 percent of voters.

"If they want me to go, they are going to have to work hard in the streets, they are going to have to collect signatures," Chavez said Tuesday in a speech in south west Venezuela.

For a vote to be held, the National Assembly, where Chavez supporters hold a slim majority, must also first appoint a new electoral authority to set a date for the poll and oversee the referendum process.

The signing of the accord will go ahead despite violence over the weekend in which gunfire disrupted a rally by opposition supporters in a pro-Chavez district of Caracas. One person was killed and 22 injured. The government and opposition blamed each other.