Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said today he hopes difficult relations with the United States will improve when President George W. Bush leaves the Oval Office in January.
Chavez, who rejects traditional US influence in Latin America and has called Mr Bush 'the devil,' denied Opec-member Venezuela represented a danger to Washington.
"Whoever the next president is and whatever party they are from, we aspire, we are anxious, that 2009 start with a new level of relations," Chavez said. "We are not a danger to the United States, for the love of God, completely the opposite."
In the past, the Venezuelan leader has said a victory for Republican presidential candidate John McCain in the November election could worsen relations between the two countries.
All candidates are wary of the outspoken critic of US foreign policy, although Democrat Barack Obama has said he could meet him.
The United States accuses Chavez of being soft on cocaine traffickers and of having ties to Marxist guerrillas in neighboring Colombia whom Washington classifies as terrorists.
But Venezuela is one of the United States's top crude suppliers and trade between the two countries hit a record $50 billion last year.
