Ambassador Donna Hrinak made the appeal during a speech to a group of deputies,
                 diplomats and other dignitaries at the Venezuelan National Assembly. The address
                 was her first public comment since returning from consultations in Washington to
                 discuss the attitude of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his government
                 toward the U.S. raids on Afghanistan.

                 Chavez earned a public rebuke from the U.S. government earlier this month when
                 he called for an end to "the killing of innocents in Afghanistan," saying civilian
                 casualties caused by the U.S. bombing campaign were "unacceptable."

                 U.S. officials expressed "surprise and disappointment" at the remarks by Chavez,
                 who said later he had not meant to criticize specifically the American military
                 response to the Sept. 11 suicide air attacks in New York and Washington.

                 Hrinak said her talks in Washington this week had confirmed that the United States
                 wanted to maintain "solid bilateral relations" with Venezuela, a major supplier of
                 crude oil to the U.S. market.

                 But she added, "A good relationship can only be maintained if each partner takes
                 into consideration the legitimate interests of the other."

                 "The war against terrorism is of paramount interest to the people and government
                 of the United States," she said.

                 The U.S. envoy's call for clear, firm support for her country's anti-terrorism war
                 was made hours before the outspoken Venezuelan president was due to fly to New
                 York to speak on Saturday at the U.N. General Assembly session.

                 In the first high-level forum among countries from all regions of the world since
                 the September 11 attacks, U.S. President George W. Bush was expected to call
                 upon world leaders to hold firm in an international coalition against terrorism.

                 "We will measure our relations with other countries in accordance with the
                 cooperation that they bring to this effort," Hrinak told Venezuelan deputies.

                 Asked by reporters what he intended to say at the United Nations on Sa turday, the
                 Venezuelan leader declined to give details, but said his speech would be dictated by
                 "my heart and my brain."

                 However, he has made clear he intends to keep on expressing his sorrow and
                 concern over innocent civilian casualties in Afghanistan, and over the threat of the
                 Afghan war escalating into a wider, even more bloody international conflict.

                 The left-leaning Venezuelan president, who has forged close ties with states like
                 Cuba, Libya, Iraq and Iran that are blacklisted by Washington as "sponsors of
                 terrorism," has been accused by critics of adopting an anti-U.S. foreign policy.

                 Chavez denies this and rejects charges that his government has been lukewarm in
                 its condemnation of the Sept. 11 attacks and ambiguous in its support for the U.S.
                 anti-terror war.

                 In a speech on Thursday, Chavez' vice president, Adina Bastidas, said terrorism's
                 roots could be found in the social, economic, political and technical inequalities of
                 the world.

                 "(There is) terrorism of the oppressed because there is also terrorism of the
                 oppressors," Bastidas said.

                 "It is a perverse and regrettable sub-product of WASP (White, Anglo-Saxon,
                 Protestant) domination, which becomes unbearable for the most radical and violent
                 of those who are dominated, and leads them to desperate, destructive and
                 murdering outbursts," she added.

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