CARACAS (AFP)--Venezuelan opposition leader Manuel Rosales was indicted Thursday for alleged corruption, in a move he said was part of President Hugo Chavez's drive to silence politicians opposed to his new re-election bid.

"There is a flood of charges, all false," said Rosales, who is mayor of Maracaibo, Venezuela's second-largest city.

"All that's left is to charge me with John Fitzgerald Kennedy's assassination, " referring to the late U.S. president shot dead in 1963.

Rosales, who heads the Un Nuevo Tiempo (New Times) main opposition party, was charged with graft, the attorney general's office said. If found guilty he could face three to 10 years in jail.

Rosales told reporters the charges stem from a 2004 investigation into his 2002-2004 tenure as Zulia state governor that was closed for lack of evidence, but that was "suddenly reopened by orders from above," alluding to Chavez.

He said the aim of the court case was to "silence all political leaders" opposed "to having somebody stay on as president of the country all of his life." Rosales was referring to Chavez latest attempt to have the National Assembly - under his party's control - draw up a constitutional amendment lifting the current two-term presidential limit and allow unlimited reelection.

Besides the graft charges, Rosales has also been accused by a committee of lawmakers of planning a coup and to assassinate Chavez, and an investigation has been requested.

hope you all know I really don't mean that, just joking hoping....