Venezuela is ready to take bilateral cooperation with Russia further, especially in the economic field, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Friday.

Speaking at a business forum at the Russian Chamber for Commerce and Industry on Friday, the Venezuelan leader hailed cooperation between the two countries in such spheres as power engineering, military cooperation and scientific research, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Chavez said that the economic cooperation "could be diversified. "

Chavez welcomed the presence of Russian oil and gas companies on the Venezuelan market and unveiled plans for cooperation in the development of several deposits whose amounts of oil are estimated at about 300 billion tons.

According to Chavez, there were huge gas fields in the Caribbean, about 200 trillion cubic meters. "We discussed with President Putin the possibility of organizing a meeting of specialists, so that they could assess projects we have outlined," he said.

Source: Xinhua