Venezuelan voters have narrowly rejected, by 51% to 49%, President Hugo Chavez's constitutional reforms. His opponents pictured here anxiously awaited the referendum result.

Opposition members cheered, beeped car horns and waved flags at Altamira Square in the Venezuelan capital Caracas.

But supporters of the president - who has set about redistributing Venezuela's oil wealth to poorer farmers in rural areas - were inconsolable.

Opponents said the result would put a brake on the "Socialist revolution" led by Mr Chavez, whose constitutional reforms sought to remove limits on presidential terms.

Overlooked by a portrait of his hero, South American revolutionary Simon Bolivar, Mr Chavez conceded as he compared the current charter with its proposed substitute.

The president urged his grim-faced supporters to accept the result and reassured them he would continue to battle for change.

Analysts say many voters - in a country with a history of dictatorships - were reluctant to give Mr Chavez too much power.

The result marked the first electoral reverse for Mr Chavez, who won power in 1998 and was re-elected with 63% of the vote last year.