Chavez buys a million laptops from Portugal

Lisbon, Sep 28 (IANS) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has signed an agreement to buy one million laptop computers from Portugal during a visit to the Iberian nation, the EFE news agency reported Sunday.

The agreement was signed at a function Saturday following a meeting between Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates and Chavez, who praised his country's bilateral relations with Portugal.

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The two sides signed a total of 10 bilateral agreements, under which Lisbon will also sell 50,000 prefabricated houses to Venezuela and the two nations will develop joint electricity and natural-gas projects.

Among the agreements, the biggest one was the sale of one million Magallanes computers, a model designed for students in developing nations, which Portugal will deliver to Caracas in various phases beginning December 2008.

Half of the order will be produced by the Portuguese company that assembles the laptops with Asian components and low-cost processors made by the US multinational Intel, while the other half will be produced in Venezuela once an assembly plant is ready.

With the 24-hour stopover in Lisbon, the Venezuelan president wound up Saturday his international tour that took him to China, Russia and France. He insists that his tour was an effort to establish 'a new network of relationships' for Venezuela.