CARACAS, Venezuela (AFX) - President Hugo Chavez will continue pressing the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to defend high oil prices if he wins a second six-year term on Sunday, Venezuela's oil minister said.
Over the past eight years Chavez has been one of OPEC's leading price hawks, consistently urging the group to cautiously manage oil supply to prevent prices from falling below $50 a barrel.
'Policy will be the same,' Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez told reporters after he voted in Caracas.
Venezuelans are choosing between leftist Chavez and Manuel Rosales, a moderate who favors free markets over socialism, in Sunday's presidential poll.
Ramirez said he is already holding talks with other OPEC ministers to build a consensus for a 500,000-barrel-a-day output cut at OPEC's Dec. 14 meeting in Nigeria's capital of Abuja.
Venezuela, a major supplier of crude to the United States, is the world's fifth-largest exporter.
High oil prices have brought a major boost to Venezuela's economy, as well as to Chavez's oil-funded social programs for the poor, which range from subsidized grocery stores to cash assistance for single mothers.
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