Venezuelan resident Hugo Chavez suffered complications including bleeding, during his cancer surgery, but is showing positive signs of recovery, senior aides say.

Venezuelan resident Hugo Chavez suffered complications including bleeding, during his cancer surgery, but is showing positive signs of recovery, senior aides say.

During his latest treatment, 58-year-old Chavez suffered "bleeding that required the adoption of corrective measures," Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas said Thursday in a television and radio address.

It was the first time Venezuelan officials had acknowledged complications in the six hours of surgery that Chavez underwent on Tuesday in Havana.

Chavez is undergoing "a progressive and favorable recovery," Villegas told the nation, warning that this "requires a precautionary time" due to the "complexity of the operation and also because of complications that arose."

Vice President Nicolas Maduro, the former foreign minister to whom Chavez bequeathed the reins of power before flying to Havana, also said that the president's condition was improving.

"In the last hours the process of recovery has evolved from stable to favorable," Maduro said, describing it as one of "progressive recovery."