Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Wednesday that under Venezuela's constitution, he did not have to leave office to be reelected to the presidency, but he would do so if ordered by the country's supreme court.

"If the Supreme Court of Justice decides that I must leave office in order to be reelected, I will follow their ruling," he said.

He added that he would go to the streets to achieve his aim of being reelected with 10 million votes, out of a total of 13 million eligible Venezuelan citizens.

Chavez said he hoped that the "dirty strategy" of the December elections, whose results the opposition said they did not trust, would not be repeated.

"We will base our actions on theirs. The question should be directed to the nation: 'do the people agree with the president being a candidate indefinitely'," he said.

Chavez has said on different occasions that if the opposition withdrew from the campaign he would replace the ballot paper with a referendum paper, asking citizens if they were happy to keep him in power until 2031.

According to Venezuela's constitution, the presidency can only be held for two terms. If Chavez wins a second term in office he will have to step down in 2014.

Chavez first took power in 1998, and was reelected in 2000 after amending the constitution.

Source: Xinhua