By IANS
Brasilia : Venezuela has denied its president Hugo Chavez had threatened to keep away from South American trade bloc Mercosur if the country's entry is not approved within the next three months.
Venezuela's ambassador to Brazil Julio Garcia Montoya appeared before the Chamber of Deputies (lower house) foreign relations committee and testified that the remarks of Chavez were intended to express his government's keenness to be a part of the grouping and not an ultimatum demanding a time-bound entry, Spanish news agency EFE Friday quoted a release of the house committee as saying.
In a nationally televised speech Tuesday Chavez had given Brazilian and Paraguayan legislatures three months to approve Venezuela's entry into the bloc failing which the Andean country would call off its request for membership.
Chavez was really trying "to demonstrate his country's desire to join Mercosur in the shortest period of time possible," the release quoted Montoya as saying.
Argentina and Uruguay, the two other members of the Mercosur, besides Brazil and Paraguay, have already approved Venezuela's candidature to the South American common market.
Montoya also proposed that a group of Venezuelan lawmakers visit Brasilia to discuss with members of the Senate and lower house the differences that have arisen in recent weeks between the two countries.
His remarks sparked an angry response from Brazilian legislators and even the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, an ally of Chavez.
Presidential chief of staff Dilma Rousseff and Institutional Relations Minister Walfrido dos Mares Guia spoke for Lula's administration and said that "Brazil doesn't accept deadlines from anyone, no matter how good of a friend he is."
A month before the Mercosur controversy erupted, Chavez had infuriated Brazilian lawmakers when he said that the nation's Congress was a "parrot that repeats what Washington says."