Chavez calls Lieberman 'mafia boss,' denies links to Hezbollah

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Thursday called Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman a "mafia boss," hitting back at Israel's top diplomat over accusations that Caracas has allowed Hezbollah to establish militant cells in its territory.

Chavez told Venezuelans that Lieberman is under investigation for money laundering and could face charges for alleged corruption. Lieberman last week accused Chavez of cooperating with "radical branches" of anti-Semitic and Islamic movements.

I will not speak about intelligence specifics, but we have enough to be concerned about the collaboration between radical branches of Islam and Hugo Chavez," Lieberman told the Colombian newspaper El Tiempo, as he concluded a 10-day tour of South American.

The foreign minister was responding to a question regarding Israel's claim that Iran-backed Hezbollah has been operating in Venezuela, itself a close ally of Tehran.

Lieberman's visit to to four South American nations was aimed at staunching Iran's growing influence in the region, and perhaps beyond.

Israeli officials also have expressed concern at Iran's growing ties with leftist-led nations in Latin America. Iranian companies are building apartments, cars, tractors and bicycles in Venezuela and the two countries' leaders have exchanged visits.

Iran has opened new embassies in Bolivia and Nicaragua and a secret Israeli report recently suggested that Bolivia and Venezuela were supplying uranium to Iran for its nuclear program - an allegation sharply denied by both Latin American countries.

Lieberman is not the first Western official to accuse Venezuela of links to Hezbollah. The budding strategic partnership between Venezuela and Iran has prompted fears from Western governments that Hezbollah is establishing a growing number of operational cells in the South American country, the Los Angeles Times reported last year.

The Lebanon-based Shi'ite organization is believed to be one of a number of anti-Western terrorist and non-state actors that have moved "people and things" into South America, an anti-terrorism expert told the Times.

Iran is long believed to have undertaken covert activity in South America in concert with Hezbollah.