Venezuela says summons US envoy over detention

CARACAS, Venezuela, Sep 27 (Reuters) President Hugo Chavez said Venezuela summoned the US ambassador to the South American nation to protest the detention of its foreign minister at a New York airport over the weekend.

Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro was detained for a short time at John F. Kennedy airport on his way home after attending the UN General Assembly, where Chavez called US President George W Bush ''the devil.'' While US Ambassador to Venezuela William Brownfield has apologized repeatedly for the incident, America's UN envoy, John Bolton, dismissed the foreign minister's complaints of his treatment as ''street theater.'' Despite increasingly strained relations this year between Venezuela and the United States, its largest oil customer, Brownfield had not received such a summons before.

A formal summons records the host government's objection to an action by the ambassador's country.

Chavez, who also told reporters Venezuela would send a protest note to the United States, said the fact that his top diplomat was pushed by authorities at the airport confirmed his belief the superpower should not be a UN member.

Still, the president also said the summons meant the controversy was over for him.

''I have turned the page,'' he said.

Opposing US policies ranging from trade to oil prices to democracy, Chavez has frequent spats with the United States.

In the last few months, he has been campaigning over US objections for a temporary seat on the UN Security Council in a vote next month.

The US Embassy said Venezuela's foreign ministry did not cast the meeting, planned for later yesterday, between Maduro and Brownfield, as a summons the way Chavez had.

Instead, the ambassador was invited to hold a meeting on several issues that he had requested last week, according to the embassy.

It will be their first talks since Maduro became foreign minister in August.

REUTERS SRS RAI0444