Venezuela Thursday informed the European Union its decision to leave the Andean Community of Nations (CAN), during a meeting held by representatives of both blocs in Brussels, CAN Secretary General Allan Wagner said.

"(Venezuelan Foreign Affairs) Vice Minister Pavel Rondón advised on his country decision" to leave CAN, declared Wagner to AFP after a meeting of an EU-CAN bipartisan committee analysing a potential start of negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement between both blocs.

"He is a very serious person, and we obviously took his words into account, but we have not yet received an official notification from the Venezuelan Government," Wager said.

However, Venezuela's decision to inform the EU about leaving CAN seems to speed up developments, just one day after President Hugo Chávez announced the retirement in Asunción, Paraguay capital city.

"The Andean Community of Nations is fatally wounded, and today I can say it is dead. It has been killed; it does not exist. Venezuela is withdrawing from CAN; it is nonsense. We should do anything else," said Chávez in Asunción.