CARACAS: Venezuela President Hugo Chavez called the recent economic reforms in close ally Cuba "refreshing" and denied they were proof that its communist economic model had failed.
"It's a process that has just begun, a stage, as (Cuba President) Raul (Castro) has described it, or refreshing, as I have said... We will see the results," he told state TV in a telephone interview late Thursday.
The leftist leader -- a close ideological ally to Raul and his brother Fidel Castro -- welcomed the raft of economic reforms approved by the Cuba Communist Party congress this week that include some free market measures.
Cubans can buy and sell homes and cars for the first time in 50 years as part of the roughly 300 reforms aimed at keeping the centrally planned system from collapse but stopping short of embracing a market-led economy.
"The pundits have started to say that Venezuela and Chavez copied the Cuban model... and what are they going to do now that the Cuba model has failed. But the Cuban model has not failed and will not fail; it is updated," Chavez said.
He also denied that Venezuela had ever tried to emulate the Cuba model, pointing to its strong private sector.
Venezuela is Cuba's main trading partner, with the countries enjoying five billion dollars of annual trade.
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