Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has announced he was seeking a constitutional amendment to allow himself to seek re-election again, saying he hoped to lead the OPEC nation until 2021.

Chavez said on Sunday that he was directing his ruling United Socialist party (PSUV) to seek a "constitutional amendment and re-election of the president of the republic" saying he was "ready (to govern) through 2021."

"I give the PSUV and the Venezuelan people my authorisation to begin the debate and take the steps necessary to obtain that constitutional amendment and re-election of the president ... and I am sure that we will get it now," Chavez said at the swearing-in of Caracas' Libertador district's mayor Jorge Rodriguez.

"I am ready, and if I am healthy, God willing, I will be with you until 2019, until 2021," added the 54-year-old Chavez, seeking to propel the oil-rich but poverty-plagued country's institutional socialism to over two decades long.

On November 24 - almost a year after losing a vote on extending his powers - Chavez had said "It's the people's right (to vote on the issue). We'll see if the people use this right, and if all the country approves it or not if there is a referendum."

In December 2007, a referendum that sought to declare Venezuela a socialist state and allow unlimited re-election did not prevail, dealt Chavez his first major defeat at the ballot box.