Oil exporter Venezuela has signed an energy co-operation pact with 13 Caribbean states in a move that strengthened President Hugo Chavez's political challenge to US influence in the region.
The Petrocaribe alliance, under which Venezuela will directly supply cheaper oil to its partners, including Cuba, will cut the energy bills of Caribbean states whose small island economies are struggling to cope with soaring world oil prices.
But in a disappointment for Mr Chavez, two Caribbean states, fellow oil and gas producer Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados, did not sign the Petrocaribe accord. Trinidad expressed reservations the deal could undercut its own oil shipments.
Mr Chavez and other Caribbean leaders hailed the energy pact as a move that will increase their collective sovereignty and economic independence in a region long dominated by US political and commercial power.
"For the countries of the Caribbean, Petrocaribe represents a welcome lifeline," Jamaican Prime Minister PJ Patterson told the meeting of Caribbean leaders, including Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Venezuela is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter and a leading oil supplier to the United States, but Mr Chavez is seeking to diversify energy ties.
"Venezuela wants to share its energy potential with South America and the Caribbean," he said as he outlined the initiative, which will create a regional oil shipment, storage and refining network promoted by Venezuela.
Mr Chavez said this would eliminate intermediary private oil traders and offer improved preferential terms for payment.
In a verbal broadside against the United States, he accused Washington of meddling in his efforts to create the Petrocaribe alliance and said he may one day have to break off relations.