(Associated Press) - 'Some of the people on Montana Indian reservations got help this winter from Venezuela with home heating bills.

Venezuela's state-owned Citgo Petroleum expanded a U-S assistance program begun on the East Coast by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

Houston-based Citgo spent about one-and-a-half (M) million dollars this winter to help thousands of the poorest Montanans.

Although Venezuela is run by Chávez, a vocal critic of President Bush, an official of the Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribes says there is nothing political about the aid. The tribes coordinated the heating assistance program on Montana's Indian reservations.

The Montana program is an expansion of Venezuela's pledge to provide heating fuel for the needy along the East Coast through Citgo, a subsidiary of the state-owned Petróleos de Venezuela'.