During his address to the nation on Wednesday night to brief on the new economic steps, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez expressed willingness to negotiate with the next US president to be elected on November.

He said that he wanted to talk face to face either to Barack Obama or John McCain and determine the new course of the US-Venezuelan relationship.

As stated by Chávez, one of the key issues to be discussed would be the production of ethanol and the US policy concerning the use of most part of corn plantations for the new fuel instead of using it for food.

In his opinion, the use of vital goods for fuel generation "is something horrible (…) a wrong decision and major cause of increasing food prices throughout the world; it is something criminal."