Venezuela's outspoken President Hugo Chavez called United States President George W Bush "the devil", "a liar" and a "tyrant" in a scathing attack before the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.
WASHINGTON: Venezuela's outspoken President Hugo Chavez called United States President George W Bush "the devil", "a liar" and a "tyrant" in a scathing attack before the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.
"Yesterday the devil came here and this place still smells of sulphur," Chavez said, referring to Bush's speech at the assembly on Tuesday.
"He came here talking as if he were the owner of the world."
Chavez launched a virulent attack on what he called US "hegemony" and renewed calls for drastic reform of the United Nations to reduce the US influence.
In a warmly applauded speech in which he quoted at different times left-wing US intellectual Noam Chomsky, Greek philosopher Aristotle and film director Alfred Hitchcock, Chavez also called Bush "a liar" and "a tyrant".
"We cannot allow world dictatorship to be consolidated," he told the assembly.
US "imperialism", he added, was "a threat to the survival of the human race."
Bush promoted "a false democracy of the elite" and a "democracy of bombs", he declared.
The left-wing Venezuelan president is a frequent critic of the US administration that he accuses of backing a plot to overthrow him.
Washington considers Chavez, a close ally of communist Cuba, to be a destabilizing influence in Latin America. But the United States is a major consumer of Venezuelan oil.
The White House shrugged off Chavez's charges.
"Not worthy of reaction. Not worthy of comment," US national security spokesman Frederick Jones said.
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