CARACAS -- A senior Venezuelan energy official said Saturday that Caracas will resume exports of crude to Cuba in September, postponing deliveries from the originally-scheduled August date.

No explanation was given as to why the sale was postponed, AFP reported.

The allies signed a deal in October 2000 under which Caracas would discount and partially finance the delivery of 53,000 barrels of crude per day, a third of Cuba's consumption.

But an aborted coup in Venezuela in April interrupted the shipments across the Caribbean, as state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) announced a change in policy that would deny oil to Cuba.

At the end of the two-day coup, President Hugo Chavez, a political ally of Cuban President Fidel Castro, was returned to power.

Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez told the daily *****El Universal***** that PDVSA and the Cuba Petroleos (CUPET) had agreed to refinance the Cuban debt of $142 million in past sales.

Opposition groups claiming the deal is unfavorable to Venezuela have failed to convince the supreme court to cancel the agreement with Cuba, the only communist-ruled country in the Americas.

Meanwhile, Venezuela renewed an agreement on Saturday to supply Caribbean and Central American nations with crude and products under preferential terms.

Under the San Jose Accord, initiated in 1980 and renewed annually, Latin American oil giants Venezuela and Mexico supply 160,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and products to 11 Central American and Caribbean nations, Reuters reported.

The San Jose pact is separate from the agreement under which Venezuela supplies Cuba and other Caribbean nations with oil and products under flexible terms.

Despite criticism by opponents of the firebrand president that the world's No. 5 oil exporting nation is financing the communist nation while it struggles with its own economic problems, government officials say sales to Cuba will be resumed in September after a payment plan was worked out.