Ahmadinejad to visit Venezuela this month, says Chavez

Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would visit the South American country this month, a move that could exacerbate tensions between Caracas and Washington.The leftist Venezuelan president told reporters his Iranian counterpart would visit after next weeks meeting of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.Chavez will not attend the General Assembly due to ill health. Having been operated on for cancer in June, he is set to start a fourth round of chemotherapy in the days ahead.It will be (Brazilian President) Dilma (Rousseff), followed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Barack Obama. After Obama comes ... I cant remember. Is it Ahmadinejad? Ahmadinejad will be finally coming here. After New York, he will come here, said Chavez, without giving more details.Both fierce anti-U.S. ideologues, Ahmadinejad and Chavez have become close political and commercial allies in recent years. The two countries are allies within OPEC.U.S. President Barack Obama hit Venezuelas state-oil company, PDVSA, with sanctions in May for sending Iran two tankers of an oil-blending component in defiance of U.S. law.The measures were largely symbolic and it is in both countries interests not to seriously interrupt oil supplies.Obama has faced pressure from conservatives in Congress to impose tougher measures if Venezuela keeps ignoring U.S. restrictions designed to limit Irans nuclear program.If Iran-Venezuela oil and investment ties deepen, Obama could take more measures, possibly excluding PDVSA from the U.S. financial system. That would affect Venezuelan debt, or in the worst-case scenario, limit imports from Venezuela.Arab states are set to push for a fully-fledged Palestinian state at the United Nations next week, despite a U.S. threat to block such a move. Chavez said he sided with the Palestinians on the matter.Venezuelas 2012 presidential election campaign was unofficially underway on Wednesday, with Chavez and his foes rallying supporters and predicting victory in the South American OPEC member.Authorities set the vote for Oct. 7, 2012 -- day of the patron saint of Chavezs birthplace Sabaneta and also the birthday of a leading opposition leader -- meaning Venezuelans are in for more than a year of noisy politicking.Chavezs cancer diagnosis and ongoing chemotherapy have given him a small sympathy bounce in opinion polls, where his approval remains above 50 percent.