Upbeat Chavez back home after cancer treatment

CARACAS: Ministers and military officers greeted Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as he returned home to Caracas Sunday after a second round of chemotherapy in Cuba.

Sporting a military uniform and escorted by his daughter Rosa, Chavez stepped off the plane at the Caracas International Airport to applause, joking and even singing with Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro, Vice president Elias Jaua and other cabinet officials.

"So you have to take life by the horns," said a smiling Chavez after his weeklong stint in Cuba.

The firebrand leftist said he had taken up painting after two chemotherapy sessions on Monday and Tuesday.

Chavez, 57, underwent an operation in Cuba on June 20 to remove a cancerous tumor in his pelvic area and received a first round of chemotherapy in mid-July.

He said Sunday he was starting a "new life" and expressed renewed confidence in his recovery.

"I'm making my own recovery. I've got a new center of gravity and it's the beginning of a new stage in my life," said Chavez, who has been in power since 1999.

The Venezuelan leader said he gave two trees to Cuba's Fidel Castro, a close ally who turned 85 on Saturday.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011