CARACAS - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is doing well as he undergoes post-cancer treatment in Havana, Vice-President Nicolas Maduro said Thursday.

In a televised speech, Maduro said Chavez is "well, very well and is going to be even better" following nine scheduled sessions of "hyperbaric oxygenation" to strengthen his health.

On Tuesday, Chavez sent a letter to Parliament requesting permission to leave for Cuba on the same day, saying doctors had recommended "I begin a special treatment, consisting of several sessions of hyperbaric oxygenation".

Chavez won reelection in October after a rocky campaign that focused largely on his health since he was forced to travel back and forth to Cuba for cancer treatment after undergoing surgery there three times.

Chavez, who arrived in Havana on Wednesday, did not say when he would be returning from Cuba. His new presidential term begins in January.