Venezuela's Chavez anxious for better U.S. ties

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez hopes prickly relations with the United States will improve when his archfoe George W. Bush leaves the Oval Office in January, the socialist leader said on Wednesday.
Chavez, who rejects traditional U.S. influence in Latin America and has called the U.S. president 'the devil,' denied OPEC-member Venezuela represented a danger to Washington.
'Whoever the next president is and whatever party they are from, we aspire, we are anxious, that 2009 start with a new level of relations,' Chavez said from an oilfield close to the Orinoco River.