Cheap oil, contracts for a state-owned shipbuilding yard and concessionary credits for workers' co-operatives were all on the agenda yesterday as Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's president, began a lightning two-day trip to a region he has called "the axis of the south".

In a visit designed to consolidate his country's growing influence in the continent, Venezuela's radical nationalist leader touched down in Uruguay yesterday and was due to fly to Buenos Aires before meeting Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva later today.