Global Policy Forum

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez criticized United Nations reforms on Saturday, saying they would permit powerful countries invade developing ones whose leaders are considered a threat.

In a speech at a community center in New York City's Bronx borough, Chavez said the document adopted at a U.N. summit Friday was developed without consensus and was "invalid and illegal." He singled out a section of the document creating a Peacebuilding Commission that outlines a "responsibility to protect."

"This is very suspicious ... tomorrow or sometime in the future, someone in Washington will say that the Venezuelan people need to be protected from the tyrant Chavez, who is a threat," he said in a speech that was broadcast on state-run television in Venezuela.

Chavez also directed a member of his delegation to arrange support for a project to clean a Bronx river. "I want to help," he told a group of youths who made the proposal.

Chavez, a self-declared "revolutionary," has often clashed with the U.S. government and has accused Washington of seeking to oust him — a claim U.S. officials have vehemently denied.