President of the Venezuelan Congress Nicolas Maduro said Saturday that the United States intends to internationally isolate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The ruling-party legislator told the press that Washington has provided "a lot of resources" for a campaign aimed at damaging Chavez and destroying the integration of South America.

Maduro made the remarks after the United States requested the South American countries to press the Venezuelan government to sever its ties with the Colombian guerrillas and help solve the dispute between Colombia and Venezuela.

Last December, Colombian agents snatched Rodrigo Granda, a leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or the FARC, on Venezuelan soil and took him to the Colombian territory.

Relations between Caracas and Bogota have grown tenser since the Colombian authorities acknowledged earlier this month that they paid bounty hunters to capture Rodrigo Granda, as Chavez considered this as a violation of the national sovereignty.

The flare-up between Venezuela and Colombia has alarmed Washington. The US State Department sent a message to Latin American governments expressing concern over the rising tensions, the US embassy in Brasilia said Friday.

The message, sent earlier last week, "supports the mediation efforts" of other countries to resolve the dispute, US embassy press spokesman Wesley Carrington said Friday.

Washington has said it supports Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. In Senate confirmation hearings last week for her appointment as US Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice had cited Chavez as "a negative force in the region."

Venezuela's foreign ministry rejected Rice's accusations on Wednesday, saying the United States, not Chavez's government, was interfering in the affairs of other nations.

Last Thursday, Interior and Justice Minister of Venezuela Jesse Chacon, considered as possible the existence in the country of Colombian guerrilla encampments due to what he termed as the inefficiency of the Colombian government.

Source: Xinhua