Venezuela seeking to join N-club

CARACAS, Venezuela — Hugo Chavez wants to join the nuclear-energy club and is looking to Russia for help in getting started.

The Venezuelan leader is already dismissing critics' concerns over his nuclear ambitions, offering assurances his aims are peaceful and that Venezuela will simply be following in the footsteps of other South American nations using atomic energy.

Yet his project remains in its planning stages and still faces a host of practical hurdles, likely requiring billions of dollars, as well as technology and expertise that Venezuela lacks.

Russia has offered to help bridge that gap, and Chavez has announced that the two countries have created an atomic energy commission.

"I say it before the world: Venezuela is going to start the process of developing nuclear energy, but we're not going to make an atomic bomb, so don't be bothering us afterward . . . (with) something like what they have against Iran," Chavez said Sunday.

The socialist president is closely allied with Iran and defends its nuclear program while the U.S. and other countries accuse Tehran of having a secret nuclear-weapons program.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly on Monday expressed misgivings about Venezuela's nuclear ambitions.

Responding to a reporter's question about whether the United States would be worried about nuclear transfers between Iran and Venezuela, Kelly said: "The short answer is, to that, yes, we do have concerns."

Some of Chavez's critics among American lawmakers are alarmed. U.S. Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fla., urged the U.S. and allies to "unite to prevent Chavez from gaining access to new nuclear technology."