US shouldn't buy oil if it doesn't want: Venezuela

Venezuelan Foreign Minister says the US should not buy Venezuelan oil 'if it does not want it'.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro has said the US should not buy Venezuelan oil "if it does not want it".

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"We are going to keep selling oil to North America because we are a serious country and we sell it to North American society. If they say they do not need it, well, let them stop buying it," Maduro said late on Monday.

Venezuela's foreign minister was reacting to recent comments by Nicholas Burns, US undersecretary of state for political affairs, who said the US is turning to bio-fuels because it does not want to depend on Venezuelan oil.

Maduro also said US President George W Bush's upcoming visit to Latin America seeks to divide the region, but "will not succeed".

"He will waste his time on the trip. In any case the peoples of South America will talk back massively and will say what they have to say to this man who has done so much harm to humanity and to peace," Maduro said.

Bush is set to visit Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico in March.

The government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has clashed repeatedly with Washington, and the controversial Left-wing populist went as far as to call Bush "the devil" in September before the UN general assembly in New York.