President Hugo Chavez health condition worsens with a severe respiratory infection and is in a "very delicate" state as he struggles with chemotherapy treatment.

Chavez receiving "chemotherapy of strong impact" for his cancer shared Information Minister Ernesto Villegas in a national address yesterday.

"There has been a worsening in his respiratory infection in relation to the state of his immunosuppression," Villegas said.

Chavez hasn't been seen or heard from since his fourth round of surgery in Cube on December 11 as he was diagnosed with an unspecified cancer in the pelvic area in June 2011.

Villegas said Chavez was "standing by Christ and life, conscious of the difficulties he faces."

"Yesterday's announcement indicates that the scenario proposed by Chavez in December of new elections is very close to happening," Nicmer Evans, a political analyst at the Universidad Central de Venezuela and a candidate for mayor of Caracas in primaries being held by Chavez's PSUV party, said at a forum in Caracas today.

"Don't be sad, my people," Chavez's daughter Maria Gabriela Chavez said yesterday on her Twitter account after the official statement about her father's health was released. "Let us raise our prayers and not lose our faith even for a single moment. All my love and strength to all of you."