CARACAS, December 10 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez offered late Monday, December 9, to discuss a timetable for elections with the opposition to resolve the current crisis, according to the official mediating talks between the two sides.

“The government has expressed at the negotiating table its willingness to work on an electoral timetable in the course of the next sessions,” said Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General Cesar Gaviria, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Venezuela’s government appeared to be ready to make concessions to the opposition forces who have mounted a general strike aimed at removing Chavez, according to BBC’s online news service.

The opposition Democratic Coordination said it would consider the proposal, but stressed it would be acceptable only if it entailed holding early elections in the first quarter of next year, said Gaviria.

“Discussions in this climate are not easy,” he said in reference to tensions fueled by a general strike that has paralyzed oil output.

Opposition groups have called for the resignation of Chavez, accusing him of ruining and polarizing the country.

The strike has brought the country’s crucial oil production and exports to a near standstill, threatening to severely damage the economy.

On Monday, National Guard troops took control of oil distribution centers and were deployed around petrol stations, where long queues of people waited to fill their cars.

Several international airlines have said they may stop flying to Venezuela - the world’s fifth largest oil exporter - in case their planes are unable to refuel.

“We face a national disaster,” warned Ali Rodriguez, Venezuela’s top oil executive at state-run Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), as the strike Chavez denounced as a coup plot brought crude production and export to a standstill.

As the strike threatened to paralyze the economy, the government offered to discuss early elections, which the opposition insists must be held within months. Strike leaders have been calling for Chavez’s resignation.

The President deployed combat troops to prevent a collapse of the strategic oil sector, but failed to keep refineries and ports open.

“Petroleum exporting activity has been paralyzed, activity in the ports has been paralyzed, refining activities are being paralyzed, and, of course so is the production activity,” Rodriguez said in a nationally broadcast address late Monday.

He warned that if Venezuela fails to meet its petroleum export commitments this month, it may have to pay a six billion dollar penalty.

A former energy minister who was secretary general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) until April, Rodriguez is the only member of the eight-strong PDVSA board of directors who did not present his resignation to Chavez last week.

He accused the strikers of sabotage, a statement echoed by Information Minister Nora Uribe, who said the opposition was plotting a coup.

Many gas stations shut down as supplies ran out, and Venezuela’s main airline Aeropostal was grounded by its employees Monday, while flights by international airlines were delayed or canceled as a result of the strike.

The turmoil also caused deep unease on international oil markets. In New York, the light sweet crude contract for January delivery rose 36 cents to 27.20 dollars amid concern about reliability of supplies from Venezuela.

Venezuela is the only Latin American OPEC member, and its political crisis is likely to figure prominently at a ministerial meeting of the cartel in Vienna Thursday, December 12.

Opponents of Chavez fired shots at the building of a government-run television in Caracas, Gaviria said late Monday.

At the same time, Chavez supporters staged noisy rallies that continued early Tuesday, December 10, outside the offices of private television channels seen as staunchly opposed to the leftist-populist President.

Gaviria denounced both incidents. “I have been informed of the attack on Venezolana de Television and I want to speak out against such acts,” said Gaviria.

Earlier in the evening, the OAS official condemned the protests outside private television channels Globovision and Venevision, as well as other media critical of Chavez.