Venezuelan president to visit Moscow

Chavez will meet with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday, the Kremlin and the government said.

Speaking ahead of the tour, Chavez said he would discuss energy and military cooperation in Moscow, including major projects to produce, refine and export oil.

The country's ambassador to Russia, Hugo Jose Garcia Hernandez, said on Tuesday the visit "is designed to reaffirm the strategic level of relations between the two major energy producers."

Chavez has recently announced plans to buy dozens of Russian tanks in response to the U.S. deployment of military bases in neighboring Colombia, aimed at curbing the country's flourishing drugs trade and the activity of FARC guerillas.

Between 2005 and 2007 Russia signed 12 contracts worth more than $4.4 billion to supply arms to Venezuela, including fighter jets, helicopters and Kalashnikov assault rifles, which raised concerns in Washington.

This will be Chavez's seventh visit to Russia as president. He came to the country twice last year alone. Medvedev visited Venezuela last November, the first visit to the Latin American country by a Russian leader in the more than 150 years they have had diplomatic relations.

As part of the tour Chavez has already visited Libya, Algeria, Syria, Iran and Turkmenistan. After Russia, the Venezuelan leader will go to Belarus.