President Hugo Chavez and his political rivals urged Venezuelans on Tuesday to accept a new national elections council that could organize a possible recall referendum on the Venezuelan leader's term.

Venezuela's Supreme Court picked the five-member panel late Monday. Tuesday's positive reactions appeared to reduce political tensions over a possible referendum.

"We ask the country to respect this new referee," Chavez said at a news conference after meeting Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Congress must approve the council, but congressional President Francisco Ameliach said he foresaw no problems because the council appeared to be politically balanced. Two members are seen as pro-government, two as pro-opposition and one as neutral.

Venezuela's Constitution allows citizens to petition for a recall referendum halfway into a president's term — for Chavez, that was Aug. 19. Last week, opposition leaders last week delivered more than 2 million voter signatures demanding a vote.

Opposition leaders said the council's appointment was the beginning of the end of Chavez's government.

"It opens the way for democracy to prevail," said Hirum Gaviria, spokesman for the opposition Democratic Coordinator.

Cesar Gaviria, secretary general of the Organization of American States, applauded the move, saying in a statement that it would help provide a "peaceful, democratic, constitutional and electoral" solution to Venezuela's political stalemate.

Numerous barriers stand in the way.

With regional and congressional elections set for 2004, some opposition leaders acknowledge a recall vote might not happen, and Chavez is challenging the signatures. If Chavez loses a recall in the last two years of his term, he could appoint his vice president to serve the remainder.

Venezuela's opposition accuses Chavez of inciting class warfare, amassing power, aligning himself with Fidel Castro's Cuba and steering the economy to ruin.

Chavez survived a brief 2002 coup and an opposition general strike earlier this year that accelerated Venezuela's economic recession.

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