CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuela hasn't broken diplomatic relations with Panama, despite its order to withdraw its ambassador, Venezuela's vice president said Saturday.

Venezuela withdrew its ambassador from Panama Friday, to protest against President Mireya Moscoso's pardon of four Cuban emigres linked to violent plots against Cuban President Fidel Castro. Castro is a close ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The move followed Cuba's announcement that it would break diplomatic relations because of the pardons on Thursday.

"We are not breaking [diplomatic relations]. We have withdrawn the ambassador and [Venezuela's] President [Chavez] will not attend the inauguration [of elected president Martin Torrijos]," said Venezuela's Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel.

Moscoso said Thursday that she had pardoned the four exiles for "humanitarian reasons" because she feared that if they were extradited to Venezuela or Cuba they "would have killed them."

Rangel said that Moscoso's announcement was "regretful."

"A pardon has been given by a chief of state to several international terrorists. That weakens the fight against terrorism," said Rangel.

Moscoso pardoned Luis Posada, Gaspar Jimenez, Guillermo Novo and Pedro Remon on Thursday, just a few days before she is to leave office. Her successor, Martin Torrijos, criticized the pardons and said he will work toward normalizing relations after he takes office on September 1.

Posada's whereabouts are unknown, but Jimenez, Novo and Remon flew to Miami on Thursday.

"I think the U.S. government has a huge responsibility in what has happened. By giving [the three] asylum and receiving these Cuban terrorists as heroes, it is participating in a policy of indulging terrorism," added Rangel.

The United States is Venezuela's main oil buyer, but relations have been strained due to Chavez's close ties with Fidel Castro and his criticism of Washington's free-market proposals.

Cuba accuses the four emigres of attempting to assassinate Castro during a November 2000 summit in Panama.

Posada and Cuban-American Jimenez were sentenced to eight years for endangering public safety and falsifying documents by a court in Panama. Cuban-Americans Novo and Remon got seven years for endangering public safety.

Posada denies involvement the 1976 attack on a Cuban jetliner for which he was awaiting trial. But in 1998, he acknowledged organizing hotel bombings in Cuba in which an Italian tourist was killed.

Posada escaped from prison in Venezuela in 1985, where he faces Venezuelan charges of bombing the Cuban jetliner with 73 people aboard.

Moscoso's decision to free the exiles has been criticized in Central America. On Thursday, Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega accused Moscoso of encouraging terrorism.

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press.