TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran joined Iraq in welcoming the return of fiery Venezuelan populist Hugo Chavez to the presidency on Sunday, calling it a victory for the Venezuelan people, Iran state radio said.

Chavez returned in triumph to his presidential palace on Sunday after a government set up following Friday's military coup collapsed in the face of a rebellion by loyalist troops and massive protests.

"Using force and illegal methods for changing legal and popular regimes is condemned in the present world," state radio quoted Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi as saying.

The Islamic Republic has built up close ties with its fellow OPEC-member Venezuela since Chavez came to power in 1998 and warmed to the ex-paratrooper's strident anti-American rhetoric.

Iranian hard-liners accused their arch-enemy Washington for being behind the coup which ousted Chavez from power. Iran's state television on Saturday said Washington was concerned that Venezuela -- the world's No. 4 oil exporter and a leading U.S. supplier of petroleum products -- would heed a call by Iran to cut oil supplies for one month to countries that support Israel.

In Baghdad, Iraq hailed Chavez' return as a "victory against the American conspiracy."

"I would like to congratulate the friendly Venezuelan people for their victory against the American conspiracy," Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz told reporters.

Aziz said the United States would "fail not only in Venezuela but in all parts of the world," in a reference to U.S. attempts to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Chavez visited Iraq last year and met Saddam, the first meeting of a head of state with the Iraqi leader since the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait.