Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announced in a Twitter message early on Monday that he had returned home to Venezuela following his cancer surgery in Cuba.

"We have arrived again to the Venezuelan motherland," Chavez wrote. "Thank you God. Thank you my beloved people. We will continue my treatment here."

From the airport, he was taken to a military hospital in Caracas, said Science and Technology Minister Jorge Arreaza, who is the president's son-in-law, AFP reported.

Chavez, 58, was first diagnosed with cancer in 2011. After surgery and treatment he declared himself free of the disease and went on to win another term in elections last October.

But he suffered a relapse, and after the latest surgery on December 11 in Havana he was still too sick to come back to Venezuela for his scheduled inauguration on January 10.

The inauguration has been postponed, and Vice President Nicolas Maduro has essentially been running Venezuela in Chavez's absence.

Last week, the Venezuelan government released the first images of Chavez following his surgery, showing him propped up in bed flanked by his two daughters.

Separately, Venezuela's foreign minister, Elias Jaua, said Sunday that President Chavez has asked his diplomats to seek improved relations with the US, the AP reported.

"We want to have a good relationship with the United States, but we are not desperate," said Jaua, speaking in an interview broadcast on the local Televen TV channel.

The US embassy in Caracas has been without an ambassador since July 2010 when Chavez rejected the US nominee for ambassador, accusing him of making disrespectful remarks about Venezuela's government. That led Washington to revoke the visa of the Venezuelan ambassador.

Jaua said Chavez wants Venezuela's ambassador to the Organization of American States, Roy Chaderton, to talk with officials in Washington about the possibility of restoring ambassadors to embassies in both countries.

But Jaua noted that Venezuela is not in a hurry to have a US envoy in Caracas, saying: "We have learned to live without a US ambassador."