Venezuela has agreed to supply Belarus with 80,000 barrels of oil daily from May.

The announcement was made after a meeting in Caracas between Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko.

The crude oil will be refined in Belarus and sold on to other European countries.

Venezuela and Belarus are allies. According to observers, the good relations between the two countries began a few years ago as the result of the two presidents' mutual aversion to then US president George W Bush.