CARACAS, Jan. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Friday he had ordered the halting of bilateral accords and business deals with Colombia to protest a Colombian police operation in which a top Colombian rebel was kidnapped from Venezuelan soil.

    "I have ordered all agreements and business with Colombia to be stopped," Chavez said in a speech to the National Assembly.

    Venezuela is Colombia's second-largest export market, with bilateral trade totaling more than 2 billion dollars in the first 11 months of last year.

    Chavez announced the sanction after recalling his ambassador from Bogota in protest against a Colombian police operation in December that Caracas says snatched Rodrigo Granda, foreign relations chief of the Colombian FARC rebel group, from the Venezuelan capital.

    "The ambassador will not return until the Colombian government apologizes," he said. Enditem