The energy pact proposed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was signed during the First Caribbean Energy summit in Puerto La Cruz, 330 km east of the capital Caracas, announced Prensa Latina news agency.

The new agreement was highly regarded by the Cuban President Fidel Castro, present at the meeting.

"Petrocaribe", the accord signed by Venezuela together with 13 Caribbean countries is a regional oil initiative, which intends to offer better help for the Caribbean nation in overcoming all the problems caused by rising oil prices, but also to develop a higher technological cooperation.


The Venezuelan oil will be cheaply exported to the Caribbean countries, which can make the payments in a much more flexible form. President Hugo Chavez underlined that his country "wants to share its energy potential with South America and the Caribbean".



Looking towards a future possible union of Latin American and Caribbean countries, the Cuban President Fidel Castro said that "it is no longer a question of struggling to improve, now it is a question of struggling for survival" in region, that has been mainly under the influence of the U.S commercial and political power, according to Reuters.