Venezuela, US agree to improve ties

CARACAS - The governments of Venezuela and the United States agreed Wednesday to find ways to improve their diplomatic relations which have been tense since August 2010, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said.

The agreement was reached during Jaua's meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry on the sidelines of a  Organization of American States (OAS) general assembly meeting held in Antigua, Guatemala.

"We trust that the meeting with John Kerry will mark the beginning of a good relation of respect between Venezuela and the United States," Jaua said in a statement released by Venezuela's official media.

According to Jaua, the meeting was marked by the goodwill of the two sides in tackling the obstacles that have prevented the two countries from normalizing bilateral relations.

Telling reporters after the meeting in Antigua, Kerry said: "We agreed today that there will be an ongoing, continuing dialogue at the high level, between the State Department and the foreign ministry, to try to set up an agenda, beginning to exchange dialogue between our two countries to ultimately" lead to the nomination of new ambassadors.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries have been frozen since August 2010, when the then president Hugo Chavez decided to withdraw placet to Larry Palmer as possible ambassador of the United States to Venezuela. And the US government ordered the withdrawal of the Venezuelan ambassador in the country.