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A miner on strike stands in front of a burning barricade on the A-66 motorway, on the first day of a strike to protest the government's spending cuts in the mining sector, in Pola de Lena, near Oviedo, northern Spain, May 23, 2012. Spain's economy is contracting for the second time since late 2009 and four years of stagnation and recession have pushed unemployment above 24 percent, the highest rate in the European Union. REUTERS/Eloy Alonso

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Members of the U.S. Navy Blue Angels fly over the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan as part of the 25th annual Fleet Week celebration in New York, May 23, 2012. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

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Venezuela's Chavez does not recognize Kosovo

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CARACAS | Thu Feb 21, 2008 2:54pm EST

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela will not recognize Kosovo as an independent republic, socialist President Hugo Chavez said on Thursday, saying the Balkan state's separation from Serbia last week was a sign of U.S. interference.

Chavez, an outspoken critic of U.S. foreign policy, said Kosovo's independence set a dangerous precedent.

"This cannot be accepted, it is a truly dangerous precedent for the whole world and could also be the start of I don't know how many wars." he said.

"We protest against this, it's part of U.S. pressure," he said during a televised Cabinet meeting.

Serbian protesters opposed to Washington's support for Kosovo's independence broke in and started a fire at the U.S. embassy in Belgrade on Thursday.

Venezuela joins several countries including China and Russia who have opposed Kosovo's independence.

Chavez is close to Russia and China as a proponent of what he calls a multipolar world. He spends time and money on projects aimed at building a bloc of nations opposed to American influence.

(Reporting by Frank Jack Daniel, Editing by Sandra Maler)
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