Venezuela says Libya OKs Chavez mediation plan

Moammar Gadhafi's government has authorized Venezuela to select countries for an effort to mediate an end to Libya's crisis and to coordinate the effort, Venezuela's foreign minister said Fridy. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who calls Gadhafi a friend and ally, has proposed creating a group of "friendly countries" to help mediate in the conflict. Gadhafi's opponents in Libya, however, have shown no willingness to negotiate as long as he remains in power. Countries including the U.S. and Italy also have been cool to Chavez's proposal. The idea won support Friday from the foreign ministers of Cuba, Ecuador and Bolivia as well as from other officials representing Nicaragua, Dominica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. They joined Maduro in Caracas for a meeting of nations belonging to the Venezuela-led Bolivarian Alternative bloc, or ALBA.   Support for the mediation proposal by Cuba, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia shows "how important the ALBA is for this world of today, which before the silence of the world has been left as the voice," Chavez said. He said time is of the essence in creating a "working group of coordination with other countries."  Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez praised Chavez's proposal and called on supporters to work on building "an international movement ... against a NATO military intervention in Libya and in Arab countries."