(EFE) - Pedro Carmona, the Venezuelan businessman who led an attempted coup against President Hugo Chavez last April, made a private visit to the United States on Monday, officials reported.

  Carmona, who asked for political asylum in Colombia last month, arrived in Miami with a short-term visa he was granted before assuming the presidency of Venezuela for a few hours between April 11 and 12.

  Party members and loyal troops restored Chavez to power hours later.

  During those events, the government of President Bush was a target of criticism for not having openly condemned the civilian-military coup that temporarily deposed the Venezuelan president.

  U.S. officials said they did not issue a condemnation because they believed Chavez had resigned the presidency, as the leaders of the failed coup had claimed.

  Relations between the United States and Venezuela, which were already strained after Chavez first came to power, worsened after the controversial Venezuelan leader criticized Washington's intervention in Afghanistan.

  On the other hand, the White House has been contemptuous of Chavez's friendship with Cuban President Fidel Castro.

  A U.S. official said he would not ''draw any conclusions'' from the visit, and that it does not mean that the U.S. government condones his actions.

  The official added that the government's ''expectation'' is that Carmona's stay here will be consistent with the terms of his short-term visa.