Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez denied U.S. claims that he's supporting Colombian guerrillas. He accused the United States of being a terrorist state.

CARACAS - (AP) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez strongly denied U.S. charges that he is supporting Colombian rebels or trying to destabilize other South American countries, accusing the United States of spreading lies and of being a ``terrorist state.''

''They accuse us of buying arms to give them to the guerrillas -- no, they're for our troops,'' Chávez said. ``They are a terrorist state, but they accuse us of being terrorists.''

Chávez lashed out Thursday night at statements by U.S State Department officials, who this week accused Venezuela of backing Colombian guerrillas with weapons, and funding ''anti-democratic groups'' in Bolivia, Ecuador and elsewhere.

Nicholas Burns, the State Department's third-ranking official, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Venezuela was supplying weapons to Colombia's main leftist group. Later, another State Department official clarified to The Herald that Burns' comments did not refer to the government of Chávez but to Venezuela in general.

Chávez's government has signed a deal to buy 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles from Russia, and Chávez said the guns are due to arrive soon.

High-ranking U.S. officials also express alarm about Chávez's plans to buy military helicopters from Russia, his virtual domination of Venezuela's political system and his increasingly close ties to Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

In some of his sharpest comments in months, Chávez said Washington is stepping up a campaign of ''big lies'' to try to isolate his government.

''We don't fear them,'' Chávez said during a military ceremony at Fort Tiuna in Caracas. ``We left behind our fear a long time ago. We are determined to be free.''

Chávez, a former army officer elected in 1998 on pledges of leading a ''peaceful revolution'' for the poor, often accuses the U.S. government of plotting against him to try to take control of the country's vast oil reserves.

Venezuela remains a major oil supplier to the United States, in spite of increasing tensions that have followed a series of accusations and counteraccusations between Washington and Caracas.

Chávez has said the U.S. government backed a short-lived coup against him in 2002 and appears set to do whatever is necessary to bring him down. U.S. officials have brushed aside his accusations as preposterous.

''They are the dangerous ones, and we have plenty of proof,'' Chávez said.

Venezuela has never sent its troops beyond its borders to attack anyone, Chávez said, ``and look what the U.S. empire has done.''

He said it was ridiculous for the ''liars'' at the U.S. State Department to persist in accusing Venezuela of meddling in Bolivia's affairs by funding groups aimed at destabilizing the country.

''They say they have evidence,'' he said, ``but they don't present a single piece.''