Maduro stands in for Venezuela's ailing Chavez in key speech

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro gave a brief state of the nation address on Tuesday in place of his ailing boss, Hugo Chavez, who has not been seen in public since going to Cuba for cancer surgery more than a month ago.

Maduro stood in for Chavez with a 10-minute speech before Congress in which he defended the president's decision to rule the OPEC nation from a hospital bed in Havana, despite opposition calls for him to step aside and name a temporary president.