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Chavez to send cheap oil to London to run buses: report
AFP
LONDON
Petroleumworld.com 09 14 06
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has agreed with London Mayor Ken Livingstone to send cheap oil to London in exchange for the capital's expertise in a range of public services, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.
Chavez, famous for his left-wing politics and rants against US President George W. Bush, made the offer in a visit to London's City Hall in May, and officials in the British capital and Caracas have been working since then to hash out the details.
Livingstone, a left-wing member of the Labour Party dubbed "Red Ken", confirmed the agreement was in the making to The Guardian, adding that the finer details were still yet to be agreed upon.
"We have poor people in London. We are the richest city in Europe and yet we have the disgrace of child poverty," he told the newspaper.
"They have a vast population living in slums, and we have a lot of experience in terms of housing policy and all the things we know about how to take a city and make it function."
According to a memo seen by The Guardian, London would receive an unspecified amount of oil needed to run the capital's bus network.
London's poor may get a special identity card to give them lower price bus tickets, to benefit from the lower costs, the memo said.
Caracas, meanwhile, would receive help in running its transport system and in fighting crime, benefiting from London's experience in the use of video cameras to monitor public spaces and fingerprint technology.
Livingstone's aides would also promote Venezuela in Britain by highlighting the benefits of the plan, and providing advertising on buses.
The deal is not the first time Chavez has offered cheap oil to other countries -- in November, he agreed with officials in the American states of Massachusetts and New York to sell heating oil at below market price for low income households.
AFP 13 0017 GMT 09 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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