"The government of Venezuela has agreed to send us gasoline; of course we are going to pay for it, so we appreciate the opportunity to pay for gasoline," said Roger Noriega, the US assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced that Citgo, the US arm of Venezuela's state-owned PDVSA oil firm, would provide one million barrels of gasoline and donate up to five million dollars to US aid organizations to help with rescue and recovery efforts along the US Gulf of Mexico coast.

Chavez, a close friend of Cuban President Fidel Castro who shares the Cuban leader's passion for anti-US rhetoric, has slammed US President George W. Bush for his handling of the disaster, after which thousands are feared dead.

"For four days there were warnings that (Katrina) was going to make a direct hit, and the king of vacations at his ranch only said 'you must flee.' He did not say how," Chavez said late last month, charging that the United States had no evacuation plans. "It's the rancher mentality."

Venezuela is the fourth-largest supplier of oil to the United States, but bilateral relations between Caracas and Washington have been tense ever since Chavez came to power.

"It's very, very inspiring that we have good neighbors and a lot of them have offered support in times of need, and we appreciate that very much," said Noriega, who will resign from his post later this month.

Noriega said the Bush administration does not want to "reject symbolic contributions" and is currently "looking at what various folks are offering (and) what we need, and trying to match that."

Cuba and other Latin American nations, including El Salvador and Peru, offered to send doctors to help victims of Katrina.

"Some have offered doctors and, frankly, we have to look for whether it's possible for a bunch of medical teams to operate in US territory without the necessary certification," he said.

Castro has offered to send the United States some 1,600 doctors and 34 tonnes of medicine.

Hurricane Katrina made landfall along the US Gulf Coast on August 29, thrashing the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

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