Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez criticized Saturday the UN-backed military intervention in Libya, which he saw as the workings of the "US empire" in an effort to seize Libya's oil, dpa reported.
"It is very deplorable because more death, more wars are coming. These are the war lords," he said at a rally in Caracas.
"How much does the empire care about the life of the people? They keep bombing Afghanistan, Gaza and have killed with their bombs thousands of human beings. What they want is to seize Libyan oil," said Chavez, who often refers to the United States and its allies as the empire.
He further slammed the United Nations for its role in legitimising the intervention.
"It is deplorable that the UN should lend itself to endorse war, violating its fundamental principles," Chavez said.
He had himself proposed mediation through a group of friends of Libya, in the effort to seek a peaceful way out of the conflict.
"What there is (in Libya) is a civil war. We have seen rebels shooting cannons, and now the planes of NATO and the United States come bombing to support them. That is an intervention in the internal affairs of a country, which pulverizes international law," he said.