WASHINGTON USA (AP) – The State Department, long at odds with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, yesterday responded to the populist leader’s landslide re-election victory by holding out the possibility of a more cooperative relationship with his government.

“We look forward to having the opportunity to work with the Venezuelan Government on issues of mutual interest,” said State Department press officer Eric Watnik.

His brief comment did not offer congratulations to Chavez nor did it make direct reference to him or what it regards as the increasingly authoritarian course he is pursuing.

Watnik noted that Tom Shannon, who heads the State Department’s Latin America bureau, has praised the campaign run by Chavez’s main opponent, Manuel Rosales.

“The opposition demonstrated its ability to put forth an important, peaceful and democratic campaign and it garnered a significant share of the vote,” Watnik said.

He said reports of irregularities should be investigated.

“We look forward to hearing from the Organisation of American States, the European Union and civil society groups that observed the electoral process,” Watnik added.

The administration, he said, closely followed reports of intimidation and voter harassment during the campaign, including various instances of irregularities reported by the media.

On Friday, two days before the election, National Director of Intelligence John Negroponte outlined US concerns about Chavez in a wide-ranging speech at Harvard.

He said Chavez’s “meddling in the domestic affairs of other states in the region – granting Colombia’s FARC insurgents safe haven and other material support, for example – already has made him a divisive force”.

He criticised Venezuela’s attitude towards drug trafficking as “permissive”, an allegation Venezuelan officials have denied.

Venezuela’s growing ties to Iran and other states, such as North Korea, Syria, and Belarus, “clearly demonstrate a desire to build an anti-US coalition that extends well beyond Latin America,” Negroponte said.

But Chavez, emboldened by a resounding re-election, has all the political capital he needs to drive Venezuela more firmly towards socialism while posing an increasingly defiant challenge to US influence.

Opposition contender Manuel Rosales accepted defeat Sunday night, but promised to continue countering a leader whom he accuses of becoming increasingly authoritarian.

Touting his victory in a speech to thousands, Chavez said Venezuelans should expect an “expansion of the revolution” aimed at redistributing the country’s oil wealth among the poor.

“Long live the revolution!” Chavez shouted from the balcony of the presidential palace. “Venezuela is demonstrating that a new and better world is possible, and we are building it.”

With 78 per cent of voting stations reporting, Chavez had 61 per cent of the vote, to 38 per cent for Rosales.

Chavez has won a loyal following among the poor through multibillion-dollar social programmes including subsidised food, free university education and cash benefits for single mothers.

Chavez, who says he sees Fidel Castro as a father, dedicated his victory to the ailing 80-year-old Cuban leader, and called it a blow against US President George W Bush.

“It’s another defeat for the devil, who tries to dominate the world,” Chavez told the crowd of red-shirted supporters, who listened to him under pouring rain. “Down with imperialism. We need a new world.”

Since he first won office in 1998, Chavez has increasingly dominated all branches of government, and his allies now control congress, state offices and the judiciary. Current law prevents him from running again in 2012, but he has said he plans to seek constitutional reforms that would include an end to presidential term limits.

Partial results from Sunday’s vote showed Chavez had nearly six million votes versus 3.7 million for Rosales. Final turnout figures among the 15.9 million eligible voters weren’t available, but an official bulletin of partial results showed turnout at more than 70 per cent.

“We recognise that today they defeated us,” Rosales told cheering supporters at his campaign headquarters. “We will continue in this struggle.”

Some aides wept. Others were angry.

Venezuelan society remains sharply divided along class lines, with many middle- and upper-class Chavez opponents saying they fear what may be next in the president’s play book.

Conflict and ambition have marked the rise of Chavez, 52, from a boy selling homemade sweets in a dusty backwater to a failed coup commander in 1992, and now a leader who could set the tone of Latin American politics for years to come.

Constitutional reforms he oversaw in 1999 triggered new elections the following year that he easily won. Loyalists helped him survive a 2002 coup, a subsequent general strike and a 2004 recall referendum.