Venezuela's Chavez dismisses petition against him

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez led several hundred thousand supporters on Saturday in a big show of strength and dismissed an opposition bid to oust him through a referendum as a fraud-ridden "electoral coup."

In a mass rally in Caracas, the left-wing leader said he would unmask what he called the "mega-fraud" being attempted by his opponents in their campaign to trigger a vote against him.

Opposition leaders say they have collected enough signatures to secure a referendum on his presidency in the world's No 5 oil exporter. But electoral authorities still have to verify this and decide if a poll should be held.

Chavez, addressing flag-waving followers who packed a downtown Caracas avenue, accused his foes of swelling the pro-referendum signatures with the names of dead people and under-age minors.

"We're facing another attempt at a coup ... it's an electoral coup this time," bellowed the president, who survived a bungled military coup last year. Saturday's huge rally was held to celebrate the anniversary of his 1998 election win.

Brandishing what he said were thousands of fraudulent pro-referendum signatures, Chavez added: "They had children signing, dead people, ghosts ... with dud signatures, there's not going to be any recall referendum."

The president again rejected as biased recent opinion polls which show that two out of three Vene-zuelans would vote against him if a referendum was held.

His foes say he has opened political and social wounds which are tearing the nation apart.

Chavez defended his rule -- which he says tries to use Vene-zuela's oil wealth to bring free health and education to the poor majority -- as a "peaceful, democratic revolution."

Earlier on Saturday, a mob of his supporters stormed into an east Caracas square considered an opposition sanctuary, where they attacked an anti-Chavez local district mayor.

Yelling "The squares belong to the people and not to the oli-garchy," the pro-Chavez militants pelted mayor Leopoldo Lopez with sticks and garbage in Altamira Square. They tried to remove a statue of the Virgin Mary and briefly crowned her with a red beret, a Chavez symbol.

Opposition leaders say they collected 3.6 million pro-referendum signatures last weekend and plan to deliver them to the National Electoral Council next week.