Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday said his country is preparing an agreement with Brazil to produce oil pipelines, which Venezuela currently imports from the United States.

Chavez told a press conference that Venezuela's state-run petroleum firm, PDVSA, is working on an agreement with a Brazilian firm, whose name was not revealed.

But he mentioned a firm of 300 workers near Rio de Janeiro, which produces fiber-glass pipes for the Brazilian industry at only 15 percent of its capacity.

The firms were abandoned by their owners 10 years ago, but workers saved them later and have since kept them in operation, Chavez said.

"We want to help them because there is none to give them credits. Banks function in accordance with the orders of the International Monetary Fund, the world monetary imperialism, but we are free from that," said the president.

He said his country could import this material from Brazil instead of importing it from the United States.

The deal would benefit not only Venezuela, but also the rest of the world, he said.

On Saturday evening, Chavez talked about the deal with visiting union leaders from Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. He is scheduled to go to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, on Aug. 10, to embark on a brief tour of the three nations.

Venezuela is a major oil supplier to the United States. But tensions are mounting with a series of accusations and counter-accusations between Washington and Caracas. Chavez has repeatedly accused the US government of plotting against him to try to take control of the country's vast oil reserves.

Source: Xinhua