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Hugo Chavez has scorned Barack Obama's plans to set the United States on the road to energy independence.

The Venezuelan president told CNN it would be "very difficult" for his American counterpart to wean the country off foreign oil.

The US needs petrol "like air, like oxygen to live, to survive", Mr Chavez said in an interview with CNN en Espanol.

Mr Obama has previously said America would no longer be "held hostage to dwindling resources, hostile regimes and a warming planet".

"We will commit ourselves to steady, focused, pragmatic pursuit of an America that is freed from our energy dependence, and empowered by a new energy economy that puts millions of our citizens to work," the president said.

"Now is the time to meet the challenge of this crossroads of history, by choosing a future safer for our country, prosperous for our planet, and sustainable."

Mr Chavez is a long-time foe of Washington; at one point likening George Bush to the devil.

But he said he would welcome a return to relations enjoyed under the Clinton administrations if America began showing 'respect' to the rest of the world.

Oil revenues currently account for 90 per cent of Caracas' export earnings and 30 per cent of its GDP.

Mr Chavez is currently aiming to alter the country's constitution via referendum to allow him to stand for a third straight six-year term.