Venezuelan opposition leaders said Tuesday they had collected just over 3.6 million signatures against leftist President Hugo Chavez, enough to trigger a constitutional referendum on his rule next year.

But the announcement put the opposition on a collision course with the firebrand populist leader, who has accused his foes of committing "mega-fraud" in a four-day pro-referendum signature drive over the weekend.

Venezuela's electoral authorities will now have the final word on whether the signatures are valid and whether a vote will be held in March or April 2004. International observers have already said they saw no evidence of widespread cheating.

Opposition leaders brushed aside Chavez's fraud accusations in a renewed bout of feuding with a president they accuse of trying to turn the world's No. 5 oil exporter into a Communist tyranny.

"It was a successful (pro-referendum signature) campaign ... which comfortably surpassed the requirements of the constitution," Enrique Mendoza of the opposition Democratic Coordinator coalition said.

Opposition spokeswoman Delsa Solorzano announced that 3,602,051 pro-referendum signatures were collected. These would be presented to the National Electoral Council shortly for verification, a task that could take up to a month.

Under Venezuela's constitution, around 2.4 million signatures -- 20 percent of registered voters -- were the required minimum to secure a referendum on Chavez's rule.

But even before electoral authorities started checking the signatures, Chavez and his government launched a noisy campaign alleging the opposition petition fell short of the required number and was riddled with forgeries.

"They didn't even get 2 million signatures," Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said.

But he said the government would respect the final decision of the National Electoral Council, when it came.

ALL EYES ON ELECTORAL BODY

Organization of American States Secretary General Cesar Gaviria met Chavez Tuesday to clear the air after the Venezuelan leader had criticized him Monday for not supporting the cheating charges.

Chavez suggested the former Colombian president, who heads the international monitoring mission for the referendum process, was biased in favor of the opposition.

Gaviria said after meeting the president it was up to the National Electoral Council to probe the fraud accusations.

"We're sure the council will investigate fully and that when there is a result, all sides will accept it," he added.

Opposition leaders say Chavez sympathizers have a 3-2 advantage in the electoral council's five-member directorship.

The fraud denunciations by the president, who won a 1998 election six years after failing to seize power in a coup, stirred suspicions that he was trying to avoid a referendum.

Mendoza warned that the opposition would not tolerate "more tricks and maneuvers."

Rangel questioned what the opposition would do if its bid to obtain a referendum failed. "Will they have another go at a coup?" he asked, recalling the short-lived military uprising that briefly toppled Chavez last year.

Chavez rejects recent polls showing that two out three Venezuelans would vote him out of office in a referendum.

He says popular support for his self-styled "revolution" remains solid. "I'm still the king!" he sang at a rally late Monday.

But high inflation and unemployment, worsened by a general strike earlier this year, have eroded his popularity.

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