Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez on Friday met his Colombian counterpart, Alvaro Uribe, a man he once branded a mafioso, a criminal and a liar, and swore he would never again clap eyes upon.

The two countries had appeared to be on war footing in March, when Mr Chávez sent troops to the Colombian border after Mr Uribe ordered a cross-border raid on a Farc rebel jungle camp in Ecuador.