Venezuela's state-owned Citgo said on Tuesday it had agreed with a US non-profit group to supply cheap heating fuel to Boston's poor, as part of president Hugo Chavez' anti-poverty plan for the Americas.

"Citgo is not just another oil company," Felix Rodriguez, president of Citgo, told a press conference.

"With Venezuela's state oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), of which we are a subsidiary, we share a broad social mission," he said.

The agreement between Citgo and the Citizens Energy Corporation and Mass Energy will provide "millions of gallons" of discount fuel for low income residents and charities in the northeastern state of Massachusetts, the Venezuelan embassy said in a statement.

"This programme represents the fulfilment of the promise made to people in the United States by our president, Hugo Chavez," to combat poverty in the Americas, said ambassador Bernardo Alvarez.

After Hurricane Katrina hit the southern US coast in August, Chavez offered to assist storm victims with cut-rate fuel from the state-owned oil industry.

Chavez has stormy relations with the United States, issuing provocative accusations against president George W Bush's administration, but has tried to portray himself as a friend of ordinary US citizens.

PDVSA had announced earlier this month that Citgo would begin offering heating fuel at discount prices for Boston and in the Bronx borough of New York City.

The company said the price of 4.5 million litres of heating fuel would be reduced by $10 million but did not specify the sale price. Citgo sells 13.6 million gallons (51.5 million liters) of petrol in the United States annually through 14,000 gasoline stations.

The Boston Globe daily reported that the deal was the result of negotiations initiated by a Democratic member of the House of Representatives, William Delahunt of Massachusetts, who had a lengthy meeting with Chavez to broker the agreement.

The non-profit organisation involved in distributing the fuel, Citizens Energy Corporation, was founded by Joseph Kennedy II, a liberal activist and son of the late senator Robert F Kennedy.

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