Chavez sends tanks to Colombia border

He also ordered the shutting of Venezuela's embassy in Colombia and the withdrawal of all diplomatic staff in the dispute, warning that Colombia's actions could spark a war in South America.

"Mr Defence Minister, move me 10 battalions to the frontier with Colombia immediately, tank battalions," Mr Chavez said on his weekly TV show. "The air force should mobilise. We do not want war."

Colombia's military said yesterday troops had killed Raul Reyes, a leader of Marxist FARC rebels, during an attack on a jungle camp in Ecuador in a severe blow to Latin America's oldest guerrilla insurgency.

The operation included air strikes and fighting with rebels across the frontier.

'Cause for war'

Yesterday, the anti-US Mr Chavez warned Colombia against doing the same in Venezuela because he would interpret it as a "cause for war".

Today, he said he would send Russian-made fighter jets into US ally Colombia if its troops struck in Venezuela.

Mr Chavez has been in a diplomatic dispute with his ideological opposite, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, for months because of the Venezuelan's mediation with FARC rebels over their hostages.

Mr Uribe has accused Chavez of using the mediation to meddle in Colombian affairs.

Today, Mr Chavez accused Mr Uribe of lying about the details of the operation that killed the rebel in Ecuador, where the leftist government of President Rafael Correa is a close Venezuelan ally.

He called it a "cowardly assassination" of a "good revolutionary".

Ambassador withdrawn

Ecuadoran President Rafael "Correa can count on Venezuela, no matter what for whatever it needs," Mr Chavez promised.

Ecuador has withdrawn its ambassador in protest and also questioned if Mr Uribe lied when he initially explained to his southern neighbour that the strike was in response to fire from rebels across the border against Colombian troops.

"He (Mr Uribe) is a criminal," Mr Chavez said. "Not only is he a liar, a mafia boss, a paramilitary who leads a narco-government and leads a government that is a lackey of the United States... he leads a band of criminals from his palace."

Mr Chavez said Ecuadoran military forces had also been mobilized and were moving north toward the Colombian border.

Rebel leader Reyes was in a camp 1.8km from the Ecuadoran-Colombian border when the air force began bombing, Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos told a news conference at the weekend.

Guerilla hideout

Colombian ground troops were then deployed into the guerrilla hideout to secure the area, Mr Santos said. A total of 17 guerrillas and one soldier were killed in the operation.

"It is the heaviest blow ever dealt against this terrorist group," Santos said.

Reyes, 59, whose real name was Luis Edgar Devia, was a union leader working for Swiss food giant Nestle in the southern department of Caqueta when he joined the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the 1970s. 

He had been viewed as a possible successor to the group's 77-year-old boss, Manuel Marulanda.

His killing was a major coup for Mr Uribe, who has taken a tough stance against the 17,000-strong FARC, South America's biggest insurgency which has bedeviled successive governments since the 1960s. 

Reyes's death came three days after the FARC unilaterally released four former lawmakers who had been held hostage for years, handing them to the Venezuelan government and the Red Cross in a snub to Mr Uribe.