Venezuela says grenade attack wounds seven people

CARACAS, Venezuela, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Seven people were wounded on Tuesday when a grenade exploded in a Venezuelan town near the Colombian border where violence often spills over from the neighboring country's conflict, officials said.

Two children were among the wounded when the explosive was fired into a crowd during a public event in Maroa municipality in remote Amazonas State, the Venezuelan attorney general's office said in a statement.

"It is still not confirmed whether it was action by Colombian guerrillas or a clash between paramilitaries and guerrillas from the neighboring country," the statement said.

Venezuela's frontier region is often plagued by kidnapping, drug smuggling and spillover from Colombia's four-decade-old war involving leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitaries.

Colombian military commanders have in the past accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a socialist ally of Cuba, of sympathizing with Colombian guerrillas, who are branded terrorists by Washington.

Chavez, a former army officer, denies the charges as propaganda. But he is a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy, including U.S. funds sent to help Colombian President Alvaro Uribe end his country's conflict.