Venezuela is appearing as a "potential hub of terrorism" in the America in the eyes of US officials, said a congressional report released on Thursday.

"According to senior US military and intelligence officials, Venezuela is emerging as a potential hub of terrorism in the Western Hemisphere, providing assistance to Islamic radicals from the Middle East and other terrorists," said the report at a House of Representative panel.

Venezuela has issued thousands of social security cards to people from Cuba, Colombia and "Middle Eastern nations that host foreign terrorist organizations," said the report, released by the subcommittee chairman, Texas Representative Michael McCaul.

US officials warned that the Venezuelan government, headed by President Hugo Chavez, is issuing the cards to "people who should not be getting them" and the cards could be used to attain visas and gain entry to the United States.

Several Pakistanis have been arrested at the US-Mexican border with fraudulent Venezuelan documents, it said, cautioning against an "ever-present threat of terrorist infiltration over the Southwest border."

Members of the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah, which Washington labels as a terrorist group, "have already entered the US across the southwest border," the report said.

The report, which focuses especially on the Mexico-Texas border, is based on expert opinions, media accounts and testimony from US authorities.

US immigration and customs enforcement investigations have "revealed that aliens were smuggled from the Middle East to staging areas in Central and South America, before being smuggled illegally into the US," it said.

US officials feared that the Texas-Mexico border has been experiencing an alarming rise in the level of drug cartel activities, which has put "significant additional burdens" on US authorities.

(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2006)