VENEZUELA'S left-wing soldier president, Hugo Chavez, tried his hand at teaching Monday, helping poor students learn to read and write in a two-hour class broadcast live to the nation from the presidential palace.

From a specially prepared classroom at Miraflores Palace, the former paratrooper and schoolteacher's son lectured teenage and adult students from an impoverished Caracas neighborhood on the importance of reading and writing.

"Reading helps us to interpret the world," the populist president said, before taking a roll-call of his students, writing words on the blackboard for them to read, and drilling them in punctuation and spelling.

Infuriating midday television viewers across the South American nation, his government interrupted all normal television and radio programming for more than two hours to broadcast the presidential literacy class live.

Venezuela's telecommunications laws allow the president to do this at his discretion. But critics of Chavez, who accuse him of ruling like a dictator, say he frequently abuses this right to make marathon propaganda broadcasts.

The class was organized to promote a government campaign to eradicate illiteracy in the world's No. 5 oil exporter. The campaign was launched two months ago with textbooks, videos and educators provided by Cuba.

Chavez says improving health and education are priorities of his self-styled "revolution."

After surviving a brief coup last year, he is resisting efforts by his opponents to call a referendum on his rule.

Chavez denies charges by opponents that the literacy classes are imparting pro-government, left-wing ideology along with reading and writing skills.

"God bless you, son, you're learning fast," Chavez told one young student after helping him read a sentence.

At one point, he misspelled the Spanish word for "acquire" on the blackboard before correcting himself.

Chavez, who had a humble upbringing and led a botched coup six years before winning a 1998 election, told his class childhood anecdotes, recalling how he made paper boats to float in rainwater and played baseball with a guava tree branch.

One of the students, a 64-year-old grandmother, confessed she had skipped school when she was young.

"Well, you won't escape from here," Chavez quipped

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