The United States is threatening to ban oil exports from Venezuela, Jose Vicente Rangel, Venezuela's Vice President said on Friday.

"There is a veiled threat from the US authorities to ban Venezuelan oil," Rangel said, adding that the Venezuelan government has been preparing for it.

"If we can sell gasoline to China, India and Latin America, as we have been doing, we will not have a problem," he said.

But the Venezuelan government does not want to cut exports to the United States, where it currently sells around 1.5 million barrels a day, he said.

In response to a question about the likelihood of a US invasion of Venezuela, Rangel said the US government is unpredictable, and run by "a group of irresponsible mad men headed by George W. Bush."
 
However, apart from Bush, Venezuela has no problem with the American people, he said.

Venezuela is cooperating with the United States in the fight against drug trafficking, and is also supplying the US intelligence agencies with information on people-smuggling and money laundering, to help the US war on terror, he added.

Relations between Venezuela and the United States turned sour seven years ago, when Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez took power and began accusing Washington of attempting to invade and destabilize Venezuela, a charge which has been repeatedly denied by Washington.

(Xinhua News Agency March 18, 2006)