Hugo Chavez is fighting for his life, admits chosen successor

President Hugo Chavez is fighting "for his life" against cancer inside a Venezuelan military hospital, his closest ally and chosen successor has admitted.

Nicolas Maduro, the vice-president, acknowledged the severity of Chavez's condition as speculation about the possible demise of the self-styled "revolutionary socialist" swept Venezuela. Chavez, who has fought cancer for several years, flew to Cuba for treatment in December. He returned to Venezuela last month - after an absence of more than eight weeks - and has not yet appeared in public. Only one photograph of him in his hospital bed has been released since he left for Cuba on December 11.

The state of Chavez's health is a closely guarded secret, but this was his fourth round of cancer-related surgery. In the absence of any public appearances by the president - or any official word about his condition - rumours about his death have abounded.

Maduro tried to calm the atmosphere by admitting that the president was "battling for his health, for his life, and we are accompanying him". The vice-president added: "Do you know why he neglected his health? Because he gave his body and soul completely and forgot all his obligations to himself to give the people a fatherland, to give those who had nothing a job, a life, a house, health, food, education."

Maduro added that rumours suggesting that the president was already dead were "lies and nastiness" spread by a "small and venomous minority".

Maduro would inherit the presidency in the event of Chavez's death. An election would follow within 30 days.

Chavez, 58, won power 14 years ago and has become one of the world's most controversial leaders, spending billions on health and education for Venezuela's poor and denouncing America at every opportunity.