Venezuelan presidential candidate Manuel Rosales. AFP PHOTO/Juan BARRETO

Rosales, 54, said in a meeting with the foreign press association that the accords have to be reviewed to see if they are in the national interest, and not the result of Chavez visiting countries "with his checkbook in hand."

"We have to review all agreements and treaties," said Rosales, who singled out Cuban oil accords as being against the national interest. "We are financing, we are giving the Cuban government more than 100,000 barrels a day so he (Fidel Castro) can maintain his tyranny."

Venezuela's PetroCaribe offers the 13 members, including Jamaica, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, Venezuelan petroleum products on preferential terms that eliminate third parties.  Member countries may pay for oil in goods, and under subsidized financing.

Venezuela also needs to provide investors with a better legal environment, respecting contracts, said Rosales, who called the government's oil policy a failure. Rosales said he would also review changes to the country's oil laws, including revisions to earlier signed contracts.

Chavez, 52, forced oil companies earlier this year to convert operating contracts to joint ventures, in which they hold a minority stake. Several oil companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp. and France's Total SA, either refused or sold their stakes.

"No investor, either national or international, will have a desire to invest here unless there is legal security," said Rosales, the former governor of the western oil state of Zulia.

Venezuela is currently producing 2.5 million barrels a day, of which only 1 million is through the efforts of state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, he said. The remainder, or 1.5 million barrels a day, stem from ventures with foreign companies, he said.

"That should be just the reverse," Rosales said.

If elected, Rosales would also seek to strengthen the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Polls show Rosales, who is backed by more than two dozen political parties, trails incumbent Chavez by double digits.