(CNSNews.com) - Fresh from London, where he basked in the adulation of leftists and accused President Bush of genocide, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez headed Tuesday for Libya, a country on the verge of restoring diplomatic relations with the "empire" Chavez loathes.

On Monday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. would resume full ties with Muammar Gadaffi's regime after more than two decades, open an embassy in Tripoli, and strike Libya from a list of state sponsors of terror, in recognition of a much-improved record on terrorism.

On the same day, the State Department announced that the U.S. was cutting all arms sales to Venezuela because it is not adequately cooperating in international anti-terrorism efforts.

The contrasting decisions highlight one of the Bush administration's key foreign policy successes on the one hand, and a growing challenge on the other.

Venezuela and Libya are both major oil producers, and energy-related issues are likely to feature on the agenda for the Chavez-Gadaffi meeting.

But while Chavez is trying to tighten his control and reduce foreign holdings in the energy sector -- he accuses foreign investors of exploiting resource-rich developing countries -- Gadaffi is seeking expanded Western oil and gas investment in Libya to boost production.

The visit to Tripoli may also focus attention on the opposite directions in which the two leaders appear to be heading when it comes to rhetoric.

Although Gadaffi remains a dictator whose rights record remains one of the world's worst according to human rights monitors, he has moved away from scathing verbal attacks against Washington in recent years.

Chavez, meanwhile, is escalating his verbal attacks.

At a press conference in London's City Hall on Monday, the Venezuelan called Bush "the biggest perpetrator of genocide the world has known."

The BBC quoted Chavez further as calling the U.S. leader "an assassin" and "an immoral man who should be put in jail by an international court."

He made the comments at a joint media appearance with London's left-wing mayor Ken Livingstone, who had invited Chavez for the private visit and earlier praised him as "a beacon of democracy and social progress in the Latin America."

By contrast, the head of the Conservative Group in London's elected local government authority turned down an invitation by Livingstone to attend an event with the visitor.

"President Chavez is not a person whom I wish to meet and I do not believe he is an appropriate person to entertain at City Hall," said Bob Neill in a message to the mayor.

"Chavez is well documented as having undermined pluralistic democracy, intimidated political opponents, rigged elections to congress and packed the supreme court with his own supporters."

The Venezuelan leader's visit to the British capital included interactions with left-wing lawmakers, unionists and other socialist figures, but no meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair, whom Chavez has called a "pawn of imperialism."

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