``I hope Hugo Chavez takes the message that his people sent him that his own policies are not working for the Venezuelan people,'' U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said on NBC's ``Meet the Press'' news programme.

``We do hope that Chavez recognises that the whole world is watching and that he takes advantage of this opportunity to right his own ship, which has been moving, frankly, in the wrong direction for quite a long time,'' Rice said.

Chavez, a left-wing former paratrooper, had irritated the United States by strengthening Venezuela's ties with states openly hostile to Washington, such as Fidel Castro's Cuba, Iraq and Iran.

He infuriated U.S. President George W. Bush's government late last year by criticising the U.S.-led anti-terrorism war in Afghanistan, which he said was killing innocent civilians.

This led to a cooling of relations with Washington, although Chavez insisted Venezuela wanted to maintain friendly ties and would stay a major oil supplier to the United States.

Venezuela supplies the United States with 1.5 million barrels of oil a day and has the largest reserves outside the Middle East.

White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer yesterday said the United States was monitoring the situation in Venezuela with great concern.

``We deeply regret the violence and loss of life, and call on all Venezuelans to work peacefully to resolve this crisis,'' Fleischer said in a statement.

``President Chavez has now called for national reflection and dialogue. He needs to seize this opportunity to ensure legitimacy by reaching out to the political opposition, civil society, and to all democratic forces in Venezuela,'' Fleischer said.

A COUP AND A COMEBACK
On Friday, Venezuelan military officers announced Chavez's resignation, blaming him for the deaths of at least 11 people in a protest broken up by violence. Pedro Carmona, head of Venezuela's leading business association, Fedecamaras, was named to head the government until new elections could be scheduled. He resigned the following day.

On Friday, Fleischer said that the tough action by Chavez to put down the protest had instead brought down the president.

U.S. officials insisted, however, that they did not know in advance of the chain of events that led to Chavez's departure and they said they did not consider his ouster a coup, even though military leaders installed a new government.

This was in contrast to the Latin American leaders from the 19-member Rio Group, who condemned what they called the interruption of constitutional order, called for clean democratic elections and said it was too early to decide if they could recognise the new interim government as legitimate.

Rice, while offering to work with the Organisation of American States (OAS), and other countries in the region to help move Venezuela through this crisis, warned yesterday that Chavez must respect constitutional processes.

``This is no time for a witch hunt; this is time for national reconciliation in Venezuela and we are working with our partners in the OAS and in the region to try and help Venezuela through this very difficult time,'' she said.

OAS Secretary General Cesar Gaviria will head a delegation to Caracas today to evaluate developments and explore how to support efforts to strengthen democracy in Venezuela, the OAS said yesterday.

``In the last few days, the situation in Venezuela has been of great concern to all democratic countries of the Americas,'' Gaviria said in a statement. ``It is important for the OAS to evaluate the situation carefully and determine how we can best support Venezuela in its efforts to consolidate democracy in these difficult times."

Gaviria was scheduled to report the results of his fact-finding mission before a special session of the OAS General Assembly on Thursday in Washington, the organisation said.