Chavez daughter doubts he can keep mum for long

CARACAS, Feb 14 (Reuters) Talkative leftist President Hugo Chavez has promised to pare down his marathon Sunday TV show to a 90-minute weekday program, but Venezuelans -- including his daughter -- doubt he will be able to contain himself.

Chavez said today he spoke with his daughter about changing the format of the ''Hello President'' weekly broadcast, which runs up to eight hours as he tells jokes, sings songs and makes major policy announcements such as increasing oil taxes.

The president said that when he told his daughter Rosa the program would last no longer than a soccer match, she replied, ''You don't even believe that yourself.'' She might be right.

While Chavez said he would now limit himself to one TV show on Thursday nights, he warned that he had a new 90-minute nightly slot for a radio program and also reserved the right to appear on Venezuelan TV screens on weekends.

''That doesn't surprise anybody,'' he said, chuckling.

''Hello President'' has become a mainstay of Venezuelan politics, often generating major news while still giving Chavez hours to use his popular folksy style to chat live with poor Venezuelans about their experiences with his social programs.

The opposition says his lengthy speeches and saturation of state television smack of his ambition to dominate Venezuela the way his mentor Fidel Castro has for decades in Cuba.

Chavez, who says his TV appearances allow him to wage a war of ideas against capitalism and the United States, changed the format after viewers watched embarrassing scenes on his last broadcast, where his social programs appeared to be failing.

In one segment, he interviewed a woman who did not know fish lay eggs even though she studied how to process fish products.

Her excuse? Three months into her government-sponsored course, she had only learned about socialist political theory.

Reuters AD VP0350