Chávez oil dollars buy bus tickets for 250,000 Londoners

Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's president, broke new ground in his campaign of global oil diplomacy on Monday when London mayor Ken Livingstone announced half-price bus travel for poor Londoners, funded with millions of Venezuelan oil dollars.

An initial one-year deal will see Petróleos de Venezuela Europa, the European arm of state oil company PdVSA, spend up to $32m (€23.75m, £16m) to subsidise bus fares for residents in the UK capital who receive low-income welfare payments.

Up to 250,000 Londoners – including lone parents and sick and disabled people, but excluding most other unemployed – stand to benefit under a plan first conceived during the Venezuelan socialist president's visit to the UK last year, when he dazzled the British left but eschewed meeting Tony Blair, then prime minister.

In return, London is establishing an office in Caracas, Venezuela's capital, that will school officials there in techniques of traffic management and urban planning.