| Australia on Thursday lambasted Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as a “rogue bull” as it came to the defence of close ally the United States. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, speaking on the sidelines of Asia’s annual security summit in Manila, was asked about the no-show by his US counterpart, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. With Rice unavailable to attend due to a trip to the Middle East, Downer denied the United States had lost interest in Asia and said the world should be “sympathetic” to the problems it faced. “The US has pressures their counterparts don’t have,” Downer said. “You have to be sympathetic with the pressures the US has in the Middle East. In Latin America it has people like Chavez raging around like a rogue bull, trying to disrupt good policies,” he said. “While we would like to have the US send its senior people to regional meetings like this, we do understand.” Chavez has been a sharp and highly visible critic of the United States, once comparing President George W. Bush to Satan in an appearance at the United Nations. In June he likened US cultural domination to “imperial bombardment.” |