CARACAS, Venezuela ? Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez celebrated his 57th birthday Thursday vowing to overcome cancer and remain in power for two more decades.
Speaking to a crowd of supporters from a balcony of the presidential palace, Chavez said he expects to lose his hair soon as a result of chemotherapy and that his cancer treatments will continue for months. But he said he will be ready to run for re-election in 2012.
"I invite you all to celebrate my 77th," Chavez told his cheering supporters. "I had said I'd leave in 2021. Well, I'm not going away in 2021 or anything. Maybe in 2031."
He waved a large Venezuelan flag on the balcony, then sang and swayed while a band below playing folk music. He saluted to the crowd and blew kisses while hundreds of supporters cheered and pumped fists in the air.
As for his cancer treatment, he said: "This is going to be various months all of this year, but I'm going to continue in charge of my government functions."
"And next year, we will win the presidential elections once again! Strength, unity!" Chavez said. Setting a goal he has never before reached, he said: "We're going for 10 million votes next year!"
The crowd chanted "Oh, no! Chavez won't go!"
Chavez put an arm around one of his daughters and watched while sparkling candles burned on a giant cake. Two grandsons and a granddaughter stood with him.
"I'd like to be down there with you all, but I shouldn't," Chavez said. He explained that due to chemotherapy his normal immune defenses are lower, and said: "I have to take a great deal of care."
He said earlier on state television that he should be finished with the most difficult phase of his cancer treatments by December, when he hopes to host a summit of Latin American leaders in Caracas.
"At the end of the year, I should have passed this hard, careful, very, very strict phase," Chavez said in a telephone conversation aired on television Thursday morning.
He said he sent letters inviting Latin American and Caribbean leaders to the summit in Caracas on Dec. 9. That meeting had originally been scheduled for July 5-6 but was postponed due to Chavez's illness.
Around the country, Chavez's supporters held a series of televised events honoring his birthday. A group of children sang for him and blew out a candle on a cake. Supporters danced to live music in a Caracas plaza and the president's older brother, Adan, led a crowd singing "Happy Birthday."
The president didn't attend other events aside from his appearance at the presidential palace. He said that for now he needs to limit his contact with the public because chemotherapy has weakened him and his white blood cell count has declined.
"I even asked my mother, my brothers, my family to stay put in Barinas," their home state in western Venezuela, Chavez said.
His mother, Elena Frias, sent her best wishes in an interview on state television.
"I would calmly trade my life for that of my son because I know that my son is more needed by Venezuela than I am," she said.
Chavez underwent surgery in Cuba on June 20 to remove a cancerous tumor. He hasn't said what type of cancer he has been diagnosed with or specified where exactly it was located, saying only that it was in his pelvic region.
He underwent his first phase of chemotherapy in Cuba last week and said the treatment was to ensure that no malignant cells reappear.
"When surgery is done on patients with cancer, there's always a concern of microscopic cells, or individual cells left behind even though all of the physical tumor is removed, all the imaging is negative," said Dr. Jeffrey Crawford, chief of medical oncology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.
"The role of chemotherapy is to go through the body and attack any remaining cells that may have been laying dormant or hidden," said Crawford, who is not involved in the president's treatment.
Crawford said it's not possible to draw conclusions about Chavez's treatment based on the president's account that his hair will fall out, because that's often the case with many types of chemotherapy. But based on Chavez's comments, he added, "I think the best-case scenario would probably be three to four months of chemo."
Chavez has said he is preparing to begin his second phase of chemotherapy. It's unclear how soon that could begin.
The leftist president, who has been in office since 1999, is seeking re-election next year to another six-year term.
Speaking to the crowd, Chavez called on his supporters to "strengthen our revolutionary movements."
"We have to keep advancing toward other sectors, of the middle class... the undecided," Chavez said.
Chavez also said he is changing one of his political slogans. It used to be "Socialist fatherland or death," but he said, "there will be no death here." He told the crowd: "Socialist fatherland and victory!"
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Associated Press writer Ian James contributed to this report.
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