Spain's monarch stormed out just before the scheduled end of the forum, visibly furious at Chavez's description of his former prime minister as a "fascist" and for launching a wide-ranging tirade that could not be stopped.
The dispute was a dramatic finale for the 17th meeting of the heads of state and government of Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries in Latin America, and Spain, Portugal and Andorra, which started Thursday.
Chavez -- a notoriously hotheaded leader who is seeking to leverage his country's oil wealth to win influence over other South American nations -- earned the ire of the Spanish delegation upon his arrival on Friday.
His description of Spain's former conservative prime minister Jose-Maria Aznar as a "fascist" prompted current Prime Minister Jose-Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, a socialist, to call on Chavez to show more "respect.
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But Chavez forged on, and on Saturday he repeated the contentious f-word in relation to Aznar, adding: "A fascist isn't human, a snake is