CARACAS, Jan 9 (Reuters) -- President-elect Hugo Chavez said Saturday
                  he would not seek the lifting of an arrest warrant on Venezuela's last military
                  strongman, Marcos Perez Jimenez, to allow the general to attend his
                  inauguration on Feb. 2.

                  "The case is in the hands of the judicial authorities," said Chavez, who
                  himself spent two years in prison for a failed military coup in 1992.

                  Chavez's decision to invite the ex-dictator, who served a five year sentence
                  until 1968 on corruption charges, inflamed protest from traditional political
                  parties who have vilified Perez Jimenez's repressive government.

                  The 84-year-old Perez Jimenez currently lives in exile in Spain, and is still
                  wanted in Venezuela for questioning over a murder dating to his six-year
                  dictatorship which ended in 1958.

                  Senior police officers have said in recent days that Perez Jimenez would be
                  arrested as soon as he sets foot in Venezuela in connection with the murder
                  of Lt. Leon Droz Blanco in 1954.

                  However, for many ordinary Venezuela's his regime is fondly remembered
                  as a time when it was safe to walk the streets at night, and the economy
                  flourished due to an ambitious programme of public works and a booming
                  oil sector.

                  "There has been no type of conversation or request for help from our
                  government by general Perez Jimenez," the president elect told a news
                  conference Saturday.

                  Perez Jimenez said he was willing to attend the Feb. 2 ceremony provided
                  Chavez repeal the "illegal" arrest warrant against him, according to local
                  press reports Saturday.

                  "It could be that the hour of my return is near, as I think I have shown that I
                  continue to love my country, and I consider myself the Venezuelan who has
                  served it best," Perez Jimenez said.

                    Copyright 1999 Reuters.