Venezuelan president starts blogging

CARACAS: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has started his official blog to have more interaction with his countrymen, less than a month after he joined online social networking site Twitter.

Chavez announced the creation of his blog www.chavez.org.ve at a meeting of the politburo of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) Tuesday.

According to state media, Chavez's Twitter account (@chavezcandanga), launched April 28, has more than 400,000 followers.

Chavez said that his blog would include transcripts of his speeches and information about his programmes, news, articles and the reflections of Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

The president, who has a team of 200 assistants to reply to incoming tweets, decided to start the blog to encourage his followers to post various information for all to see, the state-run ABN news agency said.

Chavez, besides responding to comments of Venezuelans and foreigners, makes various announcements on Twitter.