March 30, 2005
U.S. senator hopes to tone down rhetoric with Venezuelan leader

(AP Worldstream) - " A U.S. senator said he hopes his upcoming meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez will help to ease strained U.S.-Venezuela relations.

'There's been a lot of incendiary rhetoric between Venezuela and the U.S.,' said Sen. Norm Coleman, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere. 'Chávez has been democratically elected. I'm hopeful we can tone down the rhetoric and see if we can establish more productive relations.'

Coleman made the remarks in a telephone interview from Brazil, where he was on the third day of a six-day trip to South America (...)

Condoleezza Rice told The Washington Post editorial board last week 'we can have good relations with Venezuela at any time.'

At a summit in Venezuela, Chávez said, 'We want to invite the U.S. government to keep on sending these signals and they will receive good signals from here.'