In his weekly speech to the nation, the left-wing former paratrooper said Venezuela
                 was shrugging off the trauma caused by a short-lived April coup against him by
                 rebel military officers.

                 His pep talk came just days after several hundred thousand Venezuelans jammed the
                 streets of Caracas, howling for his resignation. Thursday's demonstration was the
                 biggest anti-government march since the April 11-14 coup.

                 Brushing aside opposition pressure and investor gloom over Venezuela, the populist
                 leader said most Venezuelans support his three-year-old government in the world's
                 fifth largest oil exporter.

                 "The world has great confidence in Venezuela and in the Venezuelan government,"
                 Chavez said in a four-hour broadcast of his weekly "Hello President" television and
                 radio program.

                 He did not refer to an opinion poll published on Friday that showed his popularity
                 had sunk in June to just over 32 percent, shedding the temporary 10-point boost he
                 had received just after the coup. Shortly after his 1998 landslide election, his
                 approval rating had stood at above 90 percent.

                 "Those who still have the idea in their heads that there is going to be another shock,
                 another coup ... they can forget it," Chavez said.

                 He urged his political opponents to try to remove him democratically through a
                 referendum next year, or, failing that, in the next scheduled general elections in
                 2006.

                 But he added: "I am going to do everything I can to govern Venezuela until 2013 ...
                 you can be sure that we are going to give it our best shot."

                 Under Venezuela's constitution, Chavez can stand for re-election for a second
                 six-year term in the 2006 polls.

                 His message was clearly a response to renewed warnings from his political foes
                 that his self-proclaimed "revolution" and leftist policies were propelling oil-rich
                 Venezuela toward chaos and ruin.

                 During his broadcast, Chavez, who says he is a Roman Catholic, frequently held up
                 a small silver crucifix.

                 "I have handed over command to Jesus, the model leader ... this is the boss, my
                 commander," he said.

                 Chavez cited -- and welcomed -- recent statements by U.S. Assistant Secretary of
                 State Otto Reich in which he said the U.S. official described him as the elected
                 leader of Venezuela and added Washington would not support any coup.

                 "There are those who try to say the U.S. government condemned Venezuela and
                 doesn't want Chavez ... it's a lie," he said, adding Reich made the comments
                 recently in Buenos Aires.

                 After April's coup, U.S. officials such as Reich came under fire for their apparent
                 initial welcome of Chavez's brief ouster. Following his reinstatement, Washington
                 denied accusations by some Chavez supporters that it had encouraged, or even
                 been involved in, the coup.

                    Copyright 2002 Reuters.