Hugo Chavez ends 'successful' Cuba cancer treatment

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has returned from Cuba, saying he has successfully completed a course of radiotherapy for cancer.

Mr Chavez hugged ministers on the runway in Caracas and broke into song in front of TV cameras.

"In the last few days we successfully completed the radiation cycle, as planned by the medical team," he said.

Mr Chavez, in power since 1999, has insisted he will run for president again in an election due in October.

"I come with great optimism that this treatment will have the effects we hope for, always asking God to help us and give us the miracle of life to keep serving," he said after 11 days in Cuba.

Officials have said that Mr Chavez's low profile in recent weeks has been due to the effects of radiotherapy.

However, there had been speculation his condition might be more serious than has been revealed.

Mr Chavez, 57, said he would continue "rigorously" following medical instructions over the coming days.

"But as the hours and days pass, I'm sure that with God's favour, medical science and this soldier's body, I will get back to where I must be, in the front line of the battle, alongside the Venezuelan people, promoting the socialist revolution," he said.

In February, vice-president Elias Jaua said surgeons had successfully removed a lesion in Mr Chavez's pelvic region.

Mr Chavez had surgery to remove a cancerous tumour from the same area last year.

Meanwhile, Venezuelan intelligence agents have questioned a crossword compiler on suspicion of inciting the murder of Mr Chavez's brother, Adan.

Neptali Segovia was accused of hiding a coded assassination message in the Ultimas Noticias newspaper.

Answers to some of the clues in his crosswords included the words "kill", "gunfire" and "Adan", it is alleged.

Mr Segovia denied the accusations, saying he had volunteered to be questioned to clarify the issue.

The accusation against him was made earlier this week by TV pundit Miguel Angel Perez Pirela, who presents a programme on state channel VTV.

He said a team of psychologists and mathematicians had concluded that the Spanish-language crossword contained a coded assassination plot against Adan.

"These sorts of messages were used a lot during World War II," he said, comparing it to secret codes used by the French Resistance.