VENEZUELA MUST CONSULT U. S. ON JET MOVES

Nov 2, 9:02 PM (ET)

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - The U.S. ambassador said Wednesday Venezuela must consult with the United States before transferring any U.S.-made warplanes to another country.

President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday he might share Venezuela's U.S.-made F-16 fighters with Cuba and China because the U.S. hadn't upheld its obligations to supply replacement parts for the F-16 fighters.

But U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield said the 1982 contract on the sale of the planes "says precisely and clearly that the Venezuelan government has the obligation to consult before transferring those planes to any other country in the world."

"We don't have any doubt the Venezuelan government will comply with the terms of that contract," Brownfield told the Venezuelan television channel Globovision.

Venezuela purchased its fleet of 21 F-16s in 1983. Until Chile acquired a fleet in 2003, Venezuela was the only Latin American country to possess the warplanes made by Lockheed Martin.

Chavez and President Bush will attend the Summit of Americas in Argentina starting Friday. Asked about the possibility the two leaders might meet, Brownfield said: "Anything's possible in a perfect world, in a perfectible world."