Hugo Chávez, the firebrand Venezuelan leader, has vowed to embrace the Spanish King when he visits his holiday home in Majorca this Friday but warned him that he will not shut up for anyone.

King Juan Carlos I lost his royal composure at a summit in November when the garrulous Mr Chávez repeatedly interrupted the Spanish Prime Minister, leading the King to abruptly exclaim: “Why don't you shut up?”

The royal outburst - “Porqué no te callas?” became an instant catchphrase in the Spanish-speaking world, emblazoned on football scarves bearing the Spanish colours and blaring out from mobile ringtones.

At first an angry Mr Chávez threatened to retaliate against Spanish companies operating in Venezuela and used the incident to rally his supporters. Now the leftist leader seems ready to bury the hatchet with the Spanish monarch, just as he did last week with his Colombian counterpart, Álvaro Uribe.

“I'd like to give the King a hug but you know, Juan Carlos, that I am not going to shut up,” a grinning Mr Chávez said on his weekly television show, Aló Presidente. “We will keep talking for ourselves, for a just and equal world.”

The Venezuelan President's leftist allies in Latin America have encouraged him to give the Spanish King a piece of his mind in Majorca on Friday. Daniel Ortega, the Nicaraguan President, told him: “Tell the King that, at the next meeting, he should learn to listen instead of telling people to shut up.”

Mr Chávez laughed at the suggestion, telling Mr Ortega that he would be sure to give the King a hug from him as well. The Venezuelan leader is also due to meet the Socialist Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who reprimanded him at the November summit for calling his conservative predecessor a fascist.

Mr Chávez is famous for the length of his speeches, which can last eight hours or more and which senior officials and journalists are often obliged to sit through in their entirety.

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