CARACAS: Vietnam's president was set to meet Venezuelan leftist leader Hugo Chavez on Thursday, mainly focused on oil and gas ties.

Nguyen Minh Triet was due to meet with Chavez at 2:00 pm (1830 GMT), on the eve of local elections seen as a referendum on the fiercely anti-liberal Venezuelan president's socialist policies.

Triet and Chavez were expected to discuss a joint development fund similar to deals Venezuela has with China and Iran, and to sign oil and gas deals.

Triet compared Venezuela to communist Vietnam, and hailed its "sustained growth and social policies," in an enthusiastic speech in parliament late Wednesday.

"The Venezuelan people will triumphantly build 21st century socialism," Triet said, using anti-US Chavez's term for his politics.

"Long live Venezuela, long live Vietnam," Triet shouted in Spanish at the end of his speech.

Since Chavez toured Vietnam in 2006, his government has stepped up bilateral relations with the Southeast Asian nation, whose Communist Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh visited Caracas early last year.

State-run energy companies Petroleos de Venezuela and PetroVietnam have announced a number of joint projects since the Chavez visit. PetroVietnam has a concession in the oil-rich Orinoco basin in eastern Venezuela.

Both companies have agreed to deals for transporting Venezuelan oil to Vietnam, where they would also build a joint oil refinery, according to Venezuelan officials.

Rich in offshore oil reserves, Vietnam lacks refining capacity, forcing the country of 86 million to import refined petroleum products.

Vietnam and Venezuela set up diplomatic ties in 1989, but bilateral trade reached only 11.7 million dollars last year, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

Triet was due to end his two-day visit late Thursday and travel to Lima, Peru, for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit at the weekend. - AFP/de