CARACAS - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, recovering in Cuba from a cancer surgery, will not be able to return to Caracas to take office on Thursday as the Constitution stipulates, National Assembly speaker Diosdado Cabello said Tuesday.

Cabello read a letter to a regular session of the parliament, in which vice-president Nicolas Maduro informed the lawmakers that the inauguration has to be postponed to a later date.

"The president has requested to inform that according to the recommendations of his medical team ... the post-operative process of recuperation must extend beyond Jan 10," the letter said.