President Hugo Chávez has declared an electricity emergency in Venezuela as the country suffers its worst drought in a century.

Water levels at the Guri Dam hydroelectric plant on the Orinoco river, which supplies 70 percent of Venezuelans with power, are at their lowest ever.

The state of emergency allows the authorities to speed up measures to increase the generation of electricity, such as investing millions of euros in new power plants.

Last month, President Chávez decided to halt electricity supplies for a number of hours each day, but the measure prompted such an outcry that he was forced to withdraw it.