CARACAS, February 20 (PL).—Argentine President Néstor Kirchner today begins a two-day visit to Venezuela with a cooperation program that contemplates the signing of important agreements in the industrial and hydrocarbons sector.

According to Foreign Ministry sources, the agreements include Caracas’ financial support for the SanCor dairy cooperative as part of a project including the acquisition of powdered milk and the installation of factories for that product in Venezuelan territory.

At the same time, it is expected that talks between Kirchner and Chávez will serve as an incentive for industrial cooperation and the signing of agreements to set up plants for manufacturing agricultural machinery.

According to diplomatic sources, this visit should make it possible to increase trade to $1 billion this year, a high level bearing in mind that in 2003 bilateral exchange was barely $100 million.

The agenda also contemplates the presence of the Argentine president in the Ayacucho block of the Orinoco Oil Belt, with a view to promoting joint businesses in prospecting and certifying crude deposits in that area.