(Adds date Chavez called Bush a devil, paragraph 21) By Patrick Markey BOGOTA, March 4 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush backed Colombia on Tuesday in an escalating Andean crisis as Venezuela moved troops to its border and Colombia accused President Hugo Chavez of genocide for sponsoring rebels. Chavez, who calls Bush "Mr. Danger," has warned war could break out after Colombia bombed inside another neighbor, Ecuador, to kill a leading leftist FARC guerrilla. Bush weighed in on the crisis for the first time since Saturday's raid into Ecuador. While most Latin American governments condemned Colombia, he criticized Chavez's "regime" for "provocative maneuvers" and said the superpower opposed any act of aggression that could destabilize the region. "Our country's message to President (Alvaro) Uribe and the people of Colombia is that we stand with our democratic ally," Bush said. Chavez says Bush is plotting an invasion of his OPEC nation using Colombia as a proxy. Last month, the self-styled socialist revolutionary sent crude prices higher by threatening to stop selling the United States oil if America attacks. The conservative Uribe, whose government receives billions of dollars in U.S. military aid, threatened to take Chavez to international court for backing Colombian rebels' "genocide." Colombia says Chavez, who brokered the release of hostages from rebel camps this year, recently paid the FARC $300 million. "We are not warmongers, but we are not weak. We cannot allow terrorists who seek refuge in other countries to spill the blood of our countrymen," Uribe said. Venezuela's foreign minister dismissed Uribe's charge as a laughable attempt to distract attention from the raid. Ecuador and Venezuela have cut diplomatic ties with Colombia and rushed troops toward the frontier in the crisis. Venezuela blocked border trade for several hours on Tuesday. Media showed on Tuesday the first noticeable Venezuelan troop movements, in buses and trucks, two days after Chavez ordered soldiers and tanks to the frontier. Raul Baduel, a respected ex-military chief who broke with Chavez last year, said the president's order was just for show. If Chavez were serious about mobilizing the military he would not have announced it -- as he did on his weekly TV program, said Baduel. Despite the leaders' brinkmanship and the risk of military missteps, political analysts said a conflict was unlikely. DIPLOMATIC EMERGENCY With the European Union and the U.N. secretary-general urging all sides to avoid an escalation, the Organization of American States, the Western Hemisphere's top diplomatic body, held an emergency session to defuse tensions. Diplomatic heavyweight Brazil led calls for Uribe to apologize to Chavez's ally, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, who started a tour of the region to lobby against Colombia. "We are going to try to resolve this matter through diplomatic and peaceful means," Correa said in Lima. "Uribe doesn't want peace, he wants war." Colombia retorted Correa should take responsibility for sheltering the rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Thousands of people have been killed or displaced by Latin America's oldest insurgency, although the fighting, bomb attacks and kidnappings in the conflict have dropped under Uribe, making him highly popular at home. Peru, which has seen violence spill over its border with Colombia, urged Chavez to stay out of the dispute."We think that Colombia and Ecuador should find a solution to this problem ... and Venezuela should not add fuel to the fire," President Alan Garcia said as hosted Correa. The dispute in the Andes reflects a political divide in Latin America, where Uribe is opposed by leftists led by Chavez, who reject "U.S. imperialism" in the region. Bush rarely refers to Chavez, whose country is a leading oil exporter to the United States. His criticism on Tuesday was sure to provoke the ex-paratrooper, who called the U.S. president the devil in a September 2006 speech at the United Nations. (Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick and Adriana Garcia in Washington, Brian Ellsworth in Caracas, Maria Luisa Palomino in Lima; Writing by Saul Hudson, editing by Philip Barbara)
Venezuela's Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro speaks to the media during a news conference at Miraflores Palace in Caracas March 3, 2008. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered tanks to the border after ...
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