President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday his government will not pay the market value for Venezuela’s largest telecommunications company when it moves to nationalize CA Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela.

Speaking during his weekly radio and TV broadcast - back after a hiatus of several months - Chavez said the price for the company, which locally known as CANTV would take into account debts to workers, pensions and other obligations, including a “technological debt” to the state.

“I’ll pay when the law dictates and in the form the government decides. I’m going to tell them that CANTV was given away and that they shouldn’t come here saying it must be paid for at the international price,” he said.

The CANTV was privatized in 1991. Earlier this month Chavez announced his plan to take control of CANTV - partially owned by U.S.-based Verizon Communications Inc.

He has told telecommunications minister Jesse Chacon on Sunday to oversee the appointment of a new board of directors for the company.

“You have to act, I’ve already given the instructions,” he

said, adding that nationalization could be hastened by the passage of the “enabling law,” which would grant Chavez authority to pass a series of laws by decree during an 18-month period.

The National Assembly, controlled by the president’s political allies, is expected to give the measure final approval this week. The takeover jeopardizes an April agreement by Verizon to sell its 28.5 percent stake in CANTV to a joint venture of America Movil and Telefonos de Mexico SA controlled by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim. The sale had been awaiting Venezuelan government regulatory approval.

... contd.