Chavez 'escapes US assassination bid'

CARACAS: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez charged on Tuesday that he had eluded a US intelligence plot to kill him, in a move likely to pile new pressure on already uneasy ties with the United States.

Chavez, appearing on state media for the first time since disappearing in the middle of his own television marathon almost four days earlier, claimed he ducked an assassination plot in El Salvador where he was to have attended the swearing in of its new president.

"The information was very specific. It was all ready to take place, they were going to carry out an attack against me on arrival in San Salvador," Chavez charged, insisting the alleged plan aimed to launch "one or several missiles at the Cubana jet that was readied for the trip," in Caracas.