Chavez mocks succession talk

"They say I'm putting on a show; it's they who are putting on a macabre show," said Chavez in another TV appearance that has marked a growing public presence since two trips to Cuba for surgery to remove a cancerous tumor and then chemotherapy.

The ever-theatrical Chavez loudly patted his stomach to show he was not wearing a colostomy bag, responding to one theory doing the rounds that his problems are intestinal.

Though no leading opposition figures have publicly suggested Chavez's version of his cancer is untrue, precise medical details have been scarce, and Venezuelans have been endlessly speculating about what condition the president has.

Some in the militant anti-Chavez circles have been muttering that the cancer story is a ploy to boost his prospects ahead of 2012 when he plans to seek re-election in the South American OPEC member he has dominated for 12 years.

"Some of the spokesmen for the squalid ones, the counter-revolution, the right wing, capitalism and the empire ... first they were celebrating because Chavez was dying," he said, laughing. "Now they say I'm making it up."

In a buoyant mood ahead of his 57th birthday on Thursday, Chavez also mocked another topic of national speculation: who might replace him if he becomes incapacitated.

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