CARACAS, Venezuela, Dec. 18 — Emboldened by the momentum of a general strike aimed at forcing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to resign, foes of the leftist leader planned to take their battle to the streets on Wednesday with a campaign of marches, rallies and highway blockades. The United States, meanwhile, has expressed concern that the turmoil, which is now in its third week, would hurt U.S. oil supplies and drive up world prices.

With a daily war cry of “Elections Now,” anti-government demonstrators have intensified a crippling strike with noisy protests throughout Caracas as they push the president to accept an early vote in the world’s fifth largest oil exporter.

“The streets are our weapon along with flags and whistles,” said Maria Munez, an unemployed businesswoman who was banging a pot on the street as part of a recent protest. “This is to liberate Venezuela.”

Strike leaders, who include dissident executives from the state oil firm PDVSA, called on supporters to block streets, roads and major highways in Caracas on Wednesday and join two marches across the sprawling capital notorious for its heavy traffic snarls.

The leftist president’s opponents, a loose coalition of political parties, unions, civic groups and business leaders, are united in their criticism that his left-leaning reforms have driven the country into recession and political turmoil.

But Chavez, a pugnacious former paratrooper who survived a military coup in April, is defying calls for an early vote from foes who accuse him of pushing the country toward economic collapse and Cuban-style communism.

The strike, launched on Dec. 2 by opposition leaders, has disrupted basic industries, closed shops and business and caused creeping food and gasoline shortages in Venezuela.

The U.S. State Department said the political crisis was “deteriorating rapidly.” Spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States supported an Organization of American States resolution that opposed a coup to topple Chavez and urged a peaceful and democratic resolution, but stopped short of seeking early elections

U.S.: WATCHING VERY CLOSELY

By targeting Venezuela’s key industry — oil — the opposition has raised the stakes of the struggle, in and outside Venezuela. The strike has reduced Venezuela’s oil output of nearly 3 million barrels a day to less than 400,000 barrels per day, state oil officials said Tuesday.

In a country already in a recession, oil normally provides 80 percent of Venezuela’s export revenues and 50 percent of the government’s revenues. It is now pumping less than a quarter of its normal output and exports have stopped.

One of the world’s largest oil refineries, Curacao’s Refineria Isla, stopped refining products because of the strike.

Two other refineries, including that produces gasoline for Venezuela and the United States, have shut down. State oil company executives have vowed to cap wells until Chavez resigns or calls early elections.

Army commander Gen. Julio Garcia Montoya condemned the shutdown as a “sabotage against Venezuela’s principal source of wealth” and gave support to government efforts to counter it.

Chavez sent troops to seize control of idled oil tankers, oilfields, refineries and loading ports. But more than 40 oil vessels are still moored off Venezuela’s coast.

For the United States, which normally gets 14 percent of its oil imports from Venezuela, the strike could complicate plans for a war in Iraq. U.S. oil prices hovered near two-month highs of $30 a barrel on Tuesday.

“It is a concern,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters, referring to the prolonged strike. “We’re following the events in Venezuela very closely when it comes to the energy situation, Venezuela being a major exporter to the United States.”

To keep U.S. oil supplies flowing during the strike, the Energy Department has allowed several oil firms to delay delivering 6 million barrels of crude oil to the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

NO PRICE CUTS SEEN

The scale and duration of the Venezuelan stoppage is rapidly changing market perceptions of prices in the coming year, which most had thought would be lower.

“Traders believed the general strike would be short-lived, a view that many country specialists now seem less convinced about,” said Mike Rothman of investment bank Merrill Lynch.

“Additionally, the interruption to Venezuela’s oil operations comes at a time when visible petroleum stocks are significantly lower than normal,” he added.

Rothman estimated that oil inventories in the industrialized world ended November about 92 million barrels below normal.

“The last time we saw storage sitting this far under average levels was two years ago — which happened to coincide with $33 crude prices,” Rothman said.

The price of OPEC’s reference basket leapt above the cartel’s $22 to $28 per barrel target range on Tuesday, lagging the rest of the market by a day.

OPEC only last week agreed to rein in excess supply and cut back on rampant quota busting, fearing a glutted market by the second quarter of the year. “With Venezuela out of the market, it’s doubtful whether anyone will cut at these price levels,” said Nauman Barakat, a broker at FIMAT International Banque.

OPEC states offered to replace Venezuelan supplies if the strike dragged on, but traders said they have seen no signs of OPEC making up for the loss.

NO BREAKTHROUGH IN TALKS

The Organization of American States, meanwhile, approved a resolution late on Monday urging Venezuela to find a “peaceful, democratic, constitutional and electoral solution” to its crisis. The resolution fell short of calling for early elections.

The international community, fearing a repeat of the street violence that killed more than 60 people during the April coup against Chavez, has been pushing the government and opposition to negotiate a settlement.

Peace talks, brokered by OAS Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria, have so far failed to bring the two sides closer to an electoral accord. Negotiators were expected to convene again on Tuesday.

Chavez maintains Venezuela’s constitution requires him to accept the results of a possible recall halfway into his six-year term, or next August. He has defied calls for elections in early 2003.

The threat to domestic transportation and the loss of $50 million daily in export income pose the strike’s biggest dangers for Chavez, who has sent soldiers to striking oil facilities to little effect.

Chavez insisted Sunday his government would ensure gasoline deliveries. He commandeered private trucks to deliver it. That hasn’t stopped panic buying and mile-long lines as state oil company executives insist gas will run out within days. Transport problems have led to shortages of basic staples, and Colombia said Tuesday that Venezuela has asked it for food.

Opposition strikers also are considering a march on the presidential palace itself. The last time they tried, 19 people were killed and hundreds were wounded - some at the hands of pro-Chavez civilians. The April 11 bloodshed provoked a coup that ousted Chavez for two days. He was restored when a new government dissolved the constitution.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.