Venezuela's Chavez suffers breathing problems

Venezuela's cancer-stricken president, Hugo Chavez, is still suffering respiratory problems after his operation in Cuba more than two months ago, according to officials.

Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said Chavez was continuing to receive treatment at a military hospital in Caracas.

"The breathing insufficiency that emerged post-operation persists, and the tendency has not been favourable, so it is still being treated" - Ernesto Villegas, Information Minister

"The breathing insufficiency that emerged post-operation persists, and the tendency has not been favourable, so it is still being treated," read the first official communique on Chavez's health since his return to Venezuela on Monday.

Friday's statement, read on national TV by Villegas, said treatment for Chavez's "base illness" - presumably the cancer first detected in mid-2011 - continued without "significant adverse effects for now".

Little detailed medical information has been made public on Chavez's condition, meaning that the government's occasional short statements are examined by Venezuelans for clues about the future for him and the nation he has governed for 14 years.

Since his surgery on December 11 in Havana - his fourth surgery for cancer - the only photos released of him came out almost a week ago. Chavez was seen bed-ridden but smiling, looking through a newspaper with two of his daughters at his side.

At the Caracas military hospital where Chavez is said to be continuing his convalescence, soldiers are on guard outside to keep out journalists and curious onlookers.

Local press reports quote hospital staff as saying they know nothing and have not seen the president.