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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says US President George W Bush will be to blame if anything happens to him.

He was speaking after US TV evangelist Pat Robertson called for his assassination in comments the US State Department said were "inappropriate".

Mr Robertson later apologised saying he was frustrated at Mr Chavez's constant accusations against Washington.

A senior representative of America's evangelical Christians says he is trying to meet Mr Chavez to apologise.

Mr Chavez said on Friday that Pat Robertson "was expressing the wishes of the US elite".

"If anything happens to me then the man responsible will be George W Bush. He will be the assassin," the Venezuelan president said at a public event. "This is pure terrorism."