Venezuela on Tuesday accused the United States of promoting a "pointless" destabilization campaign against it, saying that it was not interested in buying weapons from Washington.

The accusation came one day after the United States decided to impose an arms embargo on Venezuela because of alleged lack of support for counterterrorism efforts.

The United States was using the excuse of anti-terror war to ban arms sales to the Venezuelan government led by President Hugo Chavez, and intended to make Venezuela incapable of defending itself, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

It accused the United States again of preparing to attack and isolate the democratically-elected government in Venezuela.

Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel also said in a statement that his country had little intention to buy U.S. arms as it could purchase them from any other nations.

The U.S. decision was not new but a ratification of the policy already undertaken by Washington, Rangel said.

He dismissed as unfounded the U.S. allegation that Colombian rebels listed by Washington as terrorists were using the Venezuelan territory to attack neighboring Colombia.

The relations between the United States and Venezuela have strained. Washington expelled a senior Venezuelan diplomat in February in retaliation against Caracas's move to kick out a U.S. naval attache on espionage charges.

Source: Xinhua