ASUNCION, Paraguay—Before the end of the year, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Paraguay will know if they will be able to carry out their project to unite the three nations with a gas pipeline, a plan that already has partial funding assured by Venezuela, said the presidents of those countries.

Reuters reported that Bolivian Evo Morales, Paraguayan Nicanor Duarte and Uruguayan Tabaré Vázquez met in Asunción with President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, the country that enjoys the largest oil resources of the region and from whom the others have received a commitment to aid in the financing of the task.

"We are willing to cooperate (…) we are at the service of the grand project," said Chávez during a press conference after the meeting that was held in the headquarters of the Paraguayan government.

Chávez, who governs the fifth leading oil-exporting country in the world, is also working together with the presidents of Argentina, Nestor Kirchner, and Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, on another ambitious gas pipeline that will connect the Caribbean country with Argentina.

The Venezuelan leader stated that the gas reserves of his country together with those of Bolivia, totaling 30 trillion cubic feet, and those of Peru "which are smaller," guarantee the Latin American countries "something that is vital for comprehensive development."

He referred to a confidential report concerning what "could be a terrible fuel crisis in the Southern Cone" in defense of his 8,000-kilometer gas pipeline project.

In addition, and like various other Caribbean nations, Haiti will begin buying fuel from Venezuela at preferential prices, according to René Preval, president-elect of that country, PL reported.