US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton. AFP PHOTO

On Wednesday, Guatemala and fierce US critic Venezuela decided to give up their rival bids for a UN Security Council seat and make way for Panama as a compromise candidate.

Bolton told reporters Thursday that "the defeat of Venezuela certainly accomplishes our principal objective."

The US envoy lobbied hard for Guatemala, fearing that Venezuela, under leftist President Hugo Chavez, would use a council seat to oppose US measures and openly attack the United States.

"The Venezuelans defeated themselves through a variety of their tactics," Bolton said, citing as an example Chavez's "unconscionable speech to the General Assembly, which I think was taken by many of the members to be indicative of how they would behave in the council."

"It was an act of podiacide," Bolton said, using a word he coined to indicate that Venezuela had shot itself in the foot.

Chavez used his address to the General Assembly last September to call US President George W. Bush the "devil" and suggested that the September 11 attacks on the United States were self-inflicted.

He also characterised his ability to stymie Guatemala's candidacy as a victory over US imperialism.

Francisco Arias Cardenas, Venezuela's UN ambassador, told Union Radio from New York that "this has a lot of lessons for everyone," including the United States, which he said learned "it has to understand that it has to respect countries, cannot abuse its power and that much more is achieved in dialogue than in pressuring and blackmailing."

The United States, "could not get what it wanted done. It could not force in its candidate, and it couldn't get us out of the contest," he argued.

The Latin American and Caribbean Group (GRULAC) of the United Nations was set to meet Thursday to endorse Panama as its choice to represent the region after 47 votes in the General Assembly failed to produce a winner between Guatemala and Venezuela.

The US State Department said it would support Panama for the seat if they are put forward by the regional group.

"If, in fact, there's another candidate and that's Panama, we look forward to working with them and would support their candidacy," said department spokesman Sean McCormack.

Guatemala, which Venezuela sought to portray as a US puppet, won all but one round of voting in the assembly over the past three weeks for the non-permanent council seat being vacated by Argentina on December 31.

But it failed each time to obtain the required two-thirds majority needed to win the rotating council position, one of 10.

The Security Council is made up of 15 members, including five veto-wielding permanent members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - and 10 non-permanent members.