WASHINGTON (Reuter s) - The United States stoked a noisy spat on Tuesday with key oil supplier Venezuela by dismissing as "wild" President Hugo Chavez's accusation Washington wants to kill him and complaining of his democratic credentials.
The United States said its criticism of Chavez, who routinely insults top U.S. officials, was due to what the Bush administration perceives as Venezuela's deteriorating democracy and not due to any personal vendetta.
"Unfortunately, in addition to these wild charges and ridiculous statements that we've seen, we haven't seen any concrete progress on reversing the negative trends as far as democracy," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters.
"It's not based on personality. It's based on policy and problems," he added.
Chavez accused the Bush administration on Sunday of plotting to kill him and warned that Venezuelan oil shipments would be threatened if he came to any harm.
Chavez also says the United States backed a 2002 coup against him, which he survived, and then financed a vote campaign to try and oust him.
Political analysts and diplomats from the region typically dismiss Chavez's rhetoric as populist bluster, but he has unnerved key U.S. lawmakers who question if the Bush administration has a contingency plan to replace Venezuelan oil if Chavez carries out the threats.
Both governments have intensified their rhetoric in recent weeks, but neither has taken any action to disrupt ties between the United States and Venezuela, one of the world's largest oil exporters and a traditionally reliable U.S. supplier.
In previous years, U.S. officials said they sought to avoid verbal spats with Chavez because they believed such exchanges gave him a chance to demonize the United States and burnish his reputation as a nationalist.
But since Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) became secretary of state last month, they are unwilling to hold back their criticism over what they see as Chavez's moves to muzzle the media, stifle the opposition and skew the courts in his favor.
Chavez, who is a close ally of U.S. foe Cuban President Fidel Castro (news - web sites), presents himself as an alternative to what he sees as the superpower's imperialist policies. He says new measures often criticized as anti-democratic are needed to overhaul corrupt, inefficient institutions.
The United States has sought to enlist Latin American nations' support to stem what Rice calls Chavez's "negative force" in the region. But governments are generally wary of U.S. interference in the region and have been much more muted in their criticism of Chavez.