Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have held a brief conversation at Brazil's presidential inauguration ceremony.
"We greeted each other. (Clinton), I think, was entering the room. She had a very spontaneous smile and I greeted her with the same effusiveness. ... It was a pleasant moment. We spoke about two or three specific things," Chavez told VTV.
The two were in Brazil for the inauguration of Dilma Rousseff, the country's first female president, where they were seen shaking and chatting in a friendly encounter.
The encounter comes as tension has flared up between the United States and Venezuela since August when US President Barack Obama nominated Larry Palmer as the US new ambassador to Caracas.
Chavez insisted that Palmer was not welcome after the diplomat leveled harsh criticism against Venezuela during his US Senate confirmation hearings months ago.
Palmer had claimed that morale is low in Venezuela's military and also linked Chavez's government to leftist rebels in neighboring Colombian.
The US embassy in Caracas has been without an ambassador since Palmer's predecessor finished his term in July.
In retaliation, the State Department announced last week that the US government had revoked the visa of the Venezuelan ambassador to Washington, PressTV reported.
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