President Hugo Chavez Frias has forecast that Venezuela will become the world's first oil power within years.

Addressing cadets at the Military Academy of Venezuela, the President has presented his views on current conflicts in the world, suggesting that the world's powerful have their eyes on Venezuela to take over its oil industry with the connivance of internal allies, the oligarchy.

Venezuela currently occupies the fifth place in the world oil exports. Although current high prices can be attributed to the US invasion of Iraq and the destabilization of the Persian Gulf and Middle East, Chavez Frias insists, Venezuela has played its part to strengthen the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), citing his tour of several OPEC countries in 1999 and the oil cartel summit in Caracas in 2000.

The President says that if one compares the 1974 oil price of $13.6 a barrel to the world inflation growth since then, today's oil price should be around $126 a barrel.

Recalling history, Chavez Frias has told the cadets that Venezuelan President General Cipriano Castro (1899-1908) was toppled for ownership of Venezuela's new oil industry and the same could happen today.

The Venezuelan oligarchy are allying with the powers and want to use the Armed Force (FAN) allegedly to fight poverty. The President calls on the military not to fall for the trick ... "the war on poverty isn't the task of oligarchs that want a FAN to repress the people and the poor to safeguard their interests."