BY ALEXANDRA OLSON
 Associated Press

 CARACAS -- As Venezuelan opposition lawmakers complained Tuesday that the
 president was being handed too much power, the pro-government Congress
 granted President Hugo Chávez special fast-track powers to decree a range of
 laws without parliamentary debate.

 The so-called Enabling Law allows Chávez one year to decree 37 laws on topics
 ranging from public finance to land reform. Chávez's leftist two-party coalition
 controls 60 percent of Congress.

 Opposition parties voted against the bill, saying it contains laws too sensitive to
 leave in the president's hands. The land reform law will determine when and how
 the government can usurp private property for ``national interests.''

 Chávez also will be able to pass a law that reforms the way foreign companies
 operating Venezuela's state-owned oil fields are taxed.

 The president said he sought the special powers to alleviate Congress's workload.
 Congress has two years to adapt hundreds of laws to a new constitution approved
 by Venezuelans.

 A former military officer who says he is leading a revolution on behalf of the poor,
 Chávez has radically transformed Venezuela's political institutions since
 becoming president in 1998. Through a series of elections and referendums, he
 pushed through the new constitution and replaced the opposition-controlled
 Congress and Supreme Court.

 He is now seeking to reform the country's labor unions, a move activists say
 tramples the rights of private organizations.

 Chávez says he is dismantling a corrupt and elitist system but his opponents and
 some international observers say his reforms have dealt a blow to Venezuela's
 41-year-old democracy.

 ``We are worried because institutions in this country are clearly losing their
 autonomy and we are seeing a concentration of power that is placing the
 president in a position of hegemony. The Enabling Law contributes to this,'' said
 Leopoldo Martínez, a legislator of the opposition Justice First Party.

 Many opposition legislators said they would have approved some of the legislation
 included in the Enabling Law, and criticized Chávez's Fifth Republic Movement
 party for not allowing Congress to debate each of the 37 laws individually.

 This is the second time Chávez has sought and won the Enabling Law. Last year,
 Congress granted him the powers to pass legislation aimed at jump-starting
 Venezuela's recession-ridden economy.

 The new constitution expanded the law to allow the president to decree legislation
 unrelated to the economy.