Executive Vice President José Vicente Rangel Friday reiterated that the Venezuelan government will not allow any meddling with its domestic policy, in reply to statements by US and Colombian spokesmen questioning Venezuela's arms procurement.

"We are concerned about the standing of US official spokesmen, and cannot accept that any country in the world, not even the United States, disrespects the Venezuelan sovereignty by meddling with its domestic policy," he said.

In this connection, Rangel claimed that the Venezuelan government is "worried" about the rush of statements by US political spokesmen such as the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roger Noriega, and General Bantz Craddock, chief of the US Southern Command.

They "place US-Venezuelan relations within a framework of statements only with no reasoning at all," he added.

He denied categorically that the weapons Venezuela is going to purchase will end up in the hands of violent factors as Rumsfeld said in his latest statements.