The US-Dominican Republic Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) will produce "further" damage in the region, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Sunday after the document was ratified by the US House of Representatives.

CAFTA-DR "is a perversion that would further damage the economies and societies of our sister Central America," said Chavez.

However,when US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld issued a new statement against the Venezuelan leader, suggesting that Chavez has sabotaged the CAFTA-DR proposal, Chaves denied the charge.

"I have not done so, as that is up to you Central American fighters," said he in reference to social, political and economic representatives who reject CAFTA-DR, believing that it will produce more poverty in Central America.

The Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) has already been ratified by Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, and will soon be ratified by Costa Rica, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. US President George W. Bush is expected to make the proposal into law, bringing CAFTA-DR one step closer to coming into effect.

Source: Xinhua