CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuela’s National Assembly on Thursday gave preliminary approval for a referendum on abolishing term limits, which could let President Hugo Chavez run for re-election indefinitely.

The predominantly pro-government National Assembly is expected to give the vote the final go-ahead after a second debate next month. Election officials say the referendum could be held in March.

"President Chavez’ leadership is needed for much longer, until ... the revolution is consolidated," assembly president Cilia Flores said in an address.

Congressman Carlos Escarra called lawmakers who supported the referendum "the voice of the people," as Chavez backers held a flag-waving rally outside and turned in boxes of petitions calling for the vote.

Government officials said 4.7 million signatures had been collected. Opponents have noted, however, that the signatures are not expected to be independently verified by electoral officials.

The petition drive is largely symbolic because lawmakers have the power to approve the referendum on their own.

Chavez, who was first elected in 1998, is barred under the constitution from seeking re-election in 2012. Venezuelan voters handed Chavez his first defeat at the polls last year when they rejected a package of constitutional reforms that would have scrapped term limits, among other things.

Dissident lawmaker Ismael Garcia called the proposal "illegitimate," because it puts term limits on the table again.

Chavez says a referendum would be legal.

Economic meltdown prompts protest in Ukraine

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - The currency has lost half of its value, tens of thousands face layoffs, residents in the capital are bundling up in winter clothes as the heat sporadically goes out and Russia is threatening to cut off gas supplies.

It’s going to be a tough winter in Ukraine.

"I could understand if this were a village, but for the capital of a European country not to have heating, water and gas - how can this be?" asked Tamara Osipova, one of about 1,000 angry protesters outside the Kiev mayor’s office on Thursday.

This ex-Soviet republic has been one of hardest hit by the global financial crisis. Expert warn that the discontent visible Thursday could turn into mass opposition to a government paralyzed by political infighting.

"This is all going to boil over next year," political analyst Ivan Lozowy said. "Desperate people are capable of desperate actions."

After years of robust economic growth, Ukraine has sunk into a deep recession, pressured by a drastic fall in the exports of steel, the core of the economy. A lack of confidence in the banking system, coupled with constant political turmoil under President Viktor Yushchenko has spurred a sharp devaluation in the national currency.

The hryvna has lost a half its value since the global credit crunch hit in September, and closed at trading 9.8 to the dollar Thursday, down from 4.9 in September.

Valentyna Ivanova, a 68-year-old retired engineer, said she could not survive on 700 hryvna a month - half of which she will spend on utilities after fees were raised.

"When I come home I should eat something, shouldn’t I? And how will I buy food?" she asked at the protest.

Yushchenko has forecast the economy will contract up to 10 percent by the first three months of 2009.

Many Ukrainians also borrowed dollars to buy apartments and cars. Yushchenko’s economic adviser, Valentyn Zhukovsky, predicted that up to 60 percent of them may default. That will prompt some banks to confiscate property, while others may go bankrupt, experts say.

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has accused the central bank of speculating on the hryvna and pocketing profits and demanded the bank’s head be fired.

Tens of thousands of workers, meanwhile, face layoffs at steel mills and other industries. Industrial output shrank nearly to 30 percent in November, from a year earlier,