Cuban President Fidel Castro met revolutionary ally President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela at a Caribbean island retreat yesterday.
Mr Castro and Mr Chavez consult frequently and are both outspoken critics of US policy, even though Venezuela is a leading supplier of oil to the United States.
"We talked about everything," Mr Chavez told reporters after returning from the talks on Orchila island, a military base and presidential retreat 110 miles north of Caracas.
Cuba's President Fidel Castro on his Venezeulan counterpart, Mr Hugo Chavez
Mr Chavez said he and Mr Castro had discussed growing medical and energy cooperation between their nations. They also reviewed the political situation in Venezuela, where the populist president is resisting an opposition bid to trigger a referendum next year on whether he should stay in power.
State television showed the two leaders embracing. It also broadcast a long interview with Mr Castro in which he praised Mr Chavez as an influential leader spearheading the fight in Latin America against US-style global capitalism.
"I challenge the world to produce a more generous man," the Cuban leader, who spoke slowly and haltingly, said.
Venezuela's opposition criticised Mr Castro's trip as a meddling attempt to support Mr Chavez at a time when he faces a campaign by foes to try to vote an end to his rule in the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.
Opponents accuse Mr Chavez of trying to install Cuba-style Communism in Venezuela. The president, who says his self-styled "revolution" will benefit Venezuela's poor, has denounced their bid to trigger a referendum against him as a "mega-fraud".