CARACAS – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez received Monday his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a proclamation that they share the responsibility of stopping the “imperialist madness” of the United States.

Chavez hugged Almadinejad effusively upon the Iranian’s arrival at Miraflores Palace, describing him as a “true brother” and said that theirs are peace-loving nations.

“This is one of our jobs. We never wanted this task to be ours but it is – to stop, stop, stop the imperialist madness that has been unleashed now as it has not been in a long time,” Chavez said.

The Venezuelan president quipped that according to “the lackeys of imperialism,” Ahmadinejad is in Venezuela to “improve his marksmanship before going to Washington and that some big guns and missiles are coming from here” to attack the U.S. capital.

“It’s something to laugh about but also to keep us on our toes,” Chavez said.

He said that Iran and Venezuela are two of the countries under attack and yet “they try to represent us as the aggressors.”

“They accuse us of being warriors, people out to make war; we don’t make war, Iran hasn’t invaded anyone, Iran’s Islamic revolution has invaded no one, the Bolivarian revolution (Chavez’s term for his leftist program) has invaded no one,” he said.

“We will continue working together with God’s blessing and the support of our peoples and of most of the peoples of the world, because the peoples of the world want no more wars, they don’t want more invasions and they don’t want more imperialism,” he said.

Chavez recalled that 14,000 homes and 26 plants for producing food products have been built with the collaboration of Iranian companies.

Ahmadinejad arrived Sunday night in Venezuela to kick off a five-day Latin American tour that will also take him to Nicaragua, Cuba and Ecuador.