Chavez laughs off Benetton ad, and talks about oil and the E.U. economic crisis

Caracas, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Tuesday (December 6) laughed off a Benetton advertisement that showed him kissing his ideological adversary and U.S. counterpart Barack Obama, guffawing that it was a "good joke".

The photo was part of a controversial campaign by the Italian fashion company that showed political and religious leaders kissing each other on the mouth. The Vatican said it would take legal action over one image of Pope Benedict kissing a Muslim imam. But Chavez took it in better humor, and said he wished they would send him a Christmas tie.

"I think the Vatican protested and they retired that thing. Obama didn't protest anything, did he? He did? Probably protested that he was paired with me more than anything. He probably wanted to be with someone else. Maybe that's what he thought. They mess with me all the time, but I don't do anything ... my personal and spiritual tendency is to laugh at myself. What is it that those people sell, Benetton? They haven't even sent me a tie. I wish they would send me a Christmas tie, at least," he said.

"But it's just a peck, really, only a peck. I also had my eyes closed," Chavez added.

Chavez had met and given a book to Obama soon after he entered the White House, but hopes of a rapprochement soon evaporated and ties between Washington and Caracas remain fraught.

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