Venezuela"s President Hugo Chavez has warned he was taking potential steps to cut off oil shipments to the United States, in the event Washington goes too far campaigning against his elected leftist rule.

"The US government must know that if it crosses the line, it won"t be getting Venezuelan oil," the leftist leader cautioned late Friday, repeating threats he has made in his long, simmering dispute with the United States.

Chavez, who did not clarify how Washington might incur such a sanction, apparently was reacting to Thursday"s call by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for an international "united front" against Venezuela.

"I have to say that I"ve begun taking steps on the matter, but I won"t tell you what they are," Chavez told a meeting of pensioners in Caracas.

"They think I can"t take these steps, because we won"t know where to place our oil. Aha! That"s where they are wrong," Chavez said.

"Many countries ask us for more oil and... we"ve had to answer that we can"t give them any more because, among other things, (of)... the million and a half barrels of our production that goes to the United States."

Rice called Chavez a "challenge to democracy" on Thursday and said Venezuela"s close ties with Cuba were "a particular danger in the region."

She told the US Congress she had recently spoken of the Venezuelan problem on the telephone with the foreign ministers of (current EU president) Austria, Spain and Brazil.

"The international community has just got to be much more active in supporting and defending the Venezuelan people," Rice said.

Chavez has called Rice"s remarks a "threat," and accused US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair of launching a plan against Venezuela aimed at keeping him from being reelected in coming December elections.

"The plan has been launched. They are trying to get Spain, France, Germany and all of Europe against us," Chavez said.

He called upon Venezuelans to embrace "resistance to imperialism", his shorthand for the US government.

Chavez also accused Spain"s former prime minister Jose Maria Aznar, who recently harshly criticized Chavez"s government, of being a part of the plan to keep him from reelection.

And Chavez thanked comments he said were from Brazil"s Foreign Minister Celso Amorim and Chilean President Ricardo Lagos for supposedly refusing to take part in a front against Venezuela as Rice suggested.

""Mr. Danger"," said Chavez, referring to Bush, "you form your front, and we will form ours.

"It doesn"t matter what the US government does to us; we will respond in a Christian way: "If you slap my cheek I will offer you the other."

"I have the moral strength to resist the old cynical and immoral empire, and we shall defeat you, old empire," Chavez pledged.

Chavez took the opportunity to salute allies in communist Cuba and socialist Bolivia, and announced he would travel to Iran in a matter of months.

The only OPEC member in Latin America, Venezuela currently produces some 3.2 million barrels of oil per day and the United States is its top buyer.

US-Venezuelan relations have gone downhill since Chavez was elected seven years ago. He frequently accuses Washington of plotting against him, and has charged it backed an aborted coup in 2002.

Relations hit a new low earlier this month when Caracas expelled a US naval attache on espionage charges, prompting Washington to retaliate by kicking a Venezuelan diplomat out of the United States.

While Washington often derides Chavez for excessive and provocative rhetoric, the Americans have kept up their end of the war of words. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld earlier this month likened Chavez"s rise to power to that of Germany"s Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Despite the war of words, Venezuela remains the fourth-largest supplier of crude oil to its northern neighbor, selling it about 1.5 million barrels daily and, through Citgo, has three refineries and close to 14,000 gas (petrol) stations in the United States.