Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has expanded his country's investment in Cuba by signing new deals with the Caribbean country, official media reported Sunday.

 

Chavez signed 14 agreements Saturday in Santiago with Cuban Defense Minister Raul Castro to warp up his four-day visit to the country. The deals cover energy, farming, finance and oil refinery.

 

On the same day, the pair also visited military barracks where Cuban revolution began.

 

Venezuela and Cuba have signed more than 7 billion US dollars in deals this year, Cuban daily Granma quoted Vice President Carlos Lage as saying.

 

During his visit, Chavez met with the 81-year-old ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, inaugurated the Cienfuegos refinery, a major cooperation project between the two nations, and attended the fourth summit of Petrocaribe.

 

On Friday, Chavez and 11 heads of state and government in the Caribbean region attended the oil summit, a 16-nation energy cooperation mechanism.

 

The summit was initiated by Venezuela in 2005 to supply oil to its Caribbean neighbors at preferential prices, in the south central Cuban city of Cienfuegos.

 

Chavez said at the summit that the unfair international economic order had made poor countries difficult to buy oil, so PetroCaribe was one of the initiatives to change the situation.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 24, 2007)