Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday that his government would build 150,000 new homes for poor people in 2006, and 50,000 had already been handed over.

"We are producing homes at an impressive pace: by the end of the year we (expect to) have completed 150,000 and we will work very hard to achieve this," Chavez said in a radio and television address to the nation on Sunday.

By the end of the first half of 2006, a further 60,000 homes would be ready and another 40,000 houses would be built in the second half of the year, he said.

Housing Minister Luis Figueroa said the government had spent about 222 million U.S. dollars on the project.

Venezuela has a population of 26 million and is short of 2 million houses. The country's real estate prices rose 35 percent last year because of a lack of new housing.

Source: Xinhua