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Venezuela's Chavez pushes to scrap term limits

CARACAS, Aug 16 (Reuters) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called for an end to presidential term limits to extend his rule and lead a self-styled socialist revolution in the OPEC nation.

The leftist former soldier also proposed eliminating central bank autonomy, strengthening state expropriation powers and giving himself control over international reserves as part of an overhaul of Venezuela's constitution.

Chavez's left-wing policies have sparked the ire of critics and U.S. officials who brand him an authoritarian menace and accuse him of wielding Venezuela's oil wealth to undermine democracy at home and elsewhere in Latin America.

Unveiling his constitutional reform plans, Chavez said the presidential term should be extended by one year to seven years without the current restriction on re-election.

''The presidential period will be seven years,'' Chavez said in a speech to Congress, which is under the total control of his supporters. ''The president of the republic can be re-elected immediately for a new term, it is that simple.'' He said the government should be able to control assets of private companies before winning a court expropriation ruling.

He also said the maximum workday would be reduced to six hours from eight hours per day, and proposed new forms of social property as part of his campaign to implement ''21st Century Socialism'' in Venezuela.

Since taking power after a landslide election victory in 1998, Chavez has steadily increased his hold over Venezuela.

This year, the Venezuelan leader nationalized the nation's largest private telecommunications and electricity companies and took over four multi-billion dollar oil projects, forcing out oil giants ConocoPhillips and Exxon Mobil in the process.

A close ally of Cuba's Fidel Castro, Chavez has used bountiful oil revenues to finance a broad network of social programmes that have cultivated strong support among the poor, who overwhelmingly backed his 2006 re-election.

His government has already moved to expand expropriations of farms judged to be unproductive and put the land in the hands of state-backed peasant cooperatives.

He helped rewrite Venezuela's constitution in 1999 and is proposing new changes now to reinforce his socialist program.

REUTERS RJ HT1034

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