BY TIM JOHNSON
 

  WASHINGTON - As a volatile crisis unfolds in Venezuela, the Bush administration is playing a particularly low-profile role. There may be many reasons for
  the stance.

  Some say Washington wants Venezuela, a key U.S. crude supplier, to keep the oil spigots open. Others suggest that senior U.S. officials feel burned by
  appearing nearly gleeful during a brief coup in April against President Hugo Chávez, a populist who is distasteful to Washington.

  Still others suggest that U.S. policymakers have grown wary of the fractious opposition to Chávez, fearing it may not be any more respectful of
  democratic principles than the Chávez government.

  Whatever the answer, the State Department has hewed carefully in recent days to a low-key demand that Chávez and his opponents find a legal
  solution to their acrid stalemate.

  ''The United States supports a peaceful, democratic and constitutional solution to Venezuela's ongoing political difficulties,'' State Department spokesman
  Philip Reeker said.

  In similar statements over the past two months, the Bush administration and the U.S. Embassy in Caracas have sought to dampen restive opposition to
  Chávez, a former paratroop commander elected in late 1998.

  The statements have encouraged Chávez and his opposition to resolve their differences peacefully.

  U.S. concerns over the crisis may be reflected by the launch this month of a program to finance seminars on negotiating skills for both Chávez
  government officials and civil activists.

  ``This is about what it means to get to `yes, said Ron Ulrich, head of the Venezuela Confidence Building Initiative.

  The program's announcement this summer caused an uproar in Caracas because its initial name, the Office of Transition Initiatives, implied a Washington
  interest in easing Chávez from power.

  ''I know, I know -- the name of this office has created controversy,'' Ambassador Charles Shapiro wrote later in a local newspaper. ``I ask . . . you to
  forget the bureaucratic name . . . [and] concentrate on what we're trying to do.''

  While U.S. officials preach negotiation, some Chávez opponents have grown dismayed by a lack of U.S. support and fear that Washington has struck a
  back-room deal for guarantees of continued Venezuelan crude oil.

  Venezuela, one of the top four suppliers to U.S. markets, has the largest oil reserves in the Western Hemisphere.

  Chávez has struck up friendships with leaders of Iraq, Iran and Libya, oil-rich nations hostile to Washington, but his government reiterated recently that
  it will maintain supplies to the United States if oil fields are disrupted by war in the Persian Gulf region.

  While the Bush administration takes a low-profile role in Venezuela, some analysts see risk in a passive U.S. posture toward the crisis.

  ''It's not just quite enough to stand back and say we're taking the proper position by not taking sides, and we'll see how it works out,'' said Michael
  Shifter, a senior analyst at the Inter-American Dialogue, a liberal Washington policy institute. ``It's the most volatile situation in the hemisphere.''

  Herald staff writer Juan O. Tamayo contributed to this report from Caracas.