AUGUSTA (AP) – State Republican legislative leaders on Thursday asked Democratic Gov. John Baldacci to avoid doing business in the future with Hugo Chavez, saying the Venezuelan leader has insulted President Bush and the United States by his remarks before the United Nations.

Baldacci, who approved an agreement last winter to buy discounted oil from Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, said he had no plans to seek a similar arrangement this winter and denounced Chavez’s verbal attack on Bush.

“Chavez’s words were unnecessary and offensive,” Baldacci said.

Chavez, Venezuela’s president, mocked Bush as “the devil” during a speech Wednesday to the U.N. General Assembly. The following day in New York, Chavez said of the president: “He’s an alcoholic and a sick man.”

As Chavez’s remarks to the U.N. triggered angry responses even from some of Bush’s Democratic opponents in Congress, Maine Republicans asked Baldacci to refrain from making another deal with Venezuelan officials to obtain discounted oil for Maine’s Low Income Heating Energy Assistance Program.

Under an agreement last winter, Citgo, the Houston-based subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company was to sell 8 million gallons of heating oil on the open market and donate what amounts to a 40 percent discount to Maine. It also donated 120,000 gallons of oil to 40 Maine homeless shelters.

Assistant House GOP leader Rep. Josh Tardy of Newport said Thursday that while Maine has economic problems, “we’re not so desperate that we need handouts from a man who comes into our country and calls our president the devil in front of the whole world.”

The House Republican leader, Rep. David Bowles of Sanford, said, “It was unfortunate that we struck a deal with (Chavez) last year for oil. The governor cannot make the same mistake again.”

In response, Baldacci said that last year, “because of the outrageous oil industry profits, we called upon all oil companies to voluntarily come forward and provide affordable fuel for some of Maine’s most vulnerable” residents.

“Based on current events, I am not pursuing a similar arrangement this year,” Baldacci said in a prepared statement. He also said Maine Republicans should refrain from political rhetoric and help to formulate energy policies that protect Mainers.