U.S. says it wants to improve Venezuela relations

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - The United States wants to improve relations with Venezuela, led by anti-U.S. leftist President Hugo Chavez, the top U.S. State Department official for Latin America said on Thursday in Argentina.

Venezuela is a major supplier of oil to the United States but Chavez has been a vociferous critic of U.S. policy, and bilateral relations were further strained recently by U.S. allegations that Venezuela may have aided Colombia's FARC guerrillas.

"We talked about our interest in improving relations between Venezuela and the United States, which is our purpose at this moment," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Tom Shannon said at a news conference after meeting with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez, a Chavez ally.

Shannon was in Buenos Aires to smooth relations with Argentina, which have been rough during the first four months of Fernandez's presidency.

Fernandez complained loudly, and temporarily restricted contact between her government and U.S. officials, after the United States arrested a group of Venezuelans in Miami in December and accused them of acting as foreign agents on U.S. soil in a plot to finance Fernandez's campaign.

In a brief news conference, Shannon twice said one of the principal topics at the meeting with Fernandez was to emphasize to Argentina that the United States wanted better relations with Venezuela.

"We underlined with a friendly government, the government of Argentina, our interest in improving our relationship with Venezuela," he said.

Venezuela has purchased more than $5 billion worth of Argentine debt and agreed to provide energy-hungry Argentina with fuel in exchange for agricultural technology and expertise. Fernandez calls Chavez and Venezuela "excellent friends."

(Reporting by Hilary Burke; Editing by Eric Beech)