Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced on Saturday night that his cancer has returned and that he will undergo another surgery in Cuba.

Chavez, who won re-election on Oct 7, also said for the first time that if his health were to worsen, his successor would be Vice-President Nicolas Maduro.

"We should guarantee the advance of the Bolivarian Revolution," Chavez said on television, seated at the presidential palace with Maduro and other aides.