CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez pledged on Saturday to meet Caribbean nations’ oil needs for years to come, and urged the region to unite and seek greater independence from the United States.

Chavez deepened past pledges to share his country’s oil wealth as he addressed a summit of nations taking part in Venezuela’s Petrocaribe oil initiative, which supplies fuel under preferential terms.
“If we truly unite ... the grandchildren of our grandchildren will have no energy problems,” Chavez said. He predicted oil prices will soon hit $100 a barrel but said “the Caribbean shouldn’t have problems this century and beyond.”
“Venezuela puts this oil wealth at the disposition of our peoples of the Caribbean,” Chavez said. “It belongs to all of us. We’re going to share it like Christ. ... It will be enough for everyone.”
Venezuela still counts the United States as its top oil buyer, although Chavez has sought to diversify his clientele amid tensions with Washington by selling more to Latin America, the Caribbean, and as far away as China.
Since 2005, when Chavez created Petrocaribe, 14 countries have joined Venezuela’s pact, which lets them finance up to half their oil bills over 25 years at low interest. That number expanded to 15 on Saturday with the addition of Nicaragua, whose president Daniel Ortega attended the talks.
Leaders of nine countries signed a treaty proposed by Chavez in which Venezuela pledges to guarantee energy supplies and help the nations develop alternative energy sources. Countries that signed were Haiti, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Nicaragua, Jamaica, Suriname, Dominica, Belize, and Cuba.
Caribbean countries have already financed nearly $1 billion in fuel purchases and due to interest as low as 1 percent, have seen savings of $450 million, Chavez said