http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL5E7L63V020111006 ___________________________________________________________________________________ By Padraic Halpin DUBLIN, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Irish packaging group Smurfit Kappa said on Thursday it would hang on to its Venezuelan land in what it described as a battle of wills against plans by President Hugo Chavez to take it over. Chavez urged his agriculture minister to speed up the government takeover of land owned by Smurfit in August after first ordering the seizure of a eucalyptus tree farm belonging to the Dublin-based company in 2009. Smurfit, which owns forestry land, plants and mills in over 30 countries from Russia to the Dominican Republic, said it expected more calls from Chavez ahead of elections in a year's time but that the company was not concerned. "Land is a big populist subject for Chavez and his merry men, and they have a view that forestry is negative," Gary McGann said at a conference broadcast from New York. "Coming up to an election, he likes to give land to the people. "You'll get continuous noise, particularly as the election comes closer, and I won't say that there won't be changes, but we'll continue to be able to access our forests and our trees and make paper. "It's a battle of wills all the way, and our forestry and mill people are basically having none of it." Smurfit said it owns 35,000 hectares of forestry land in Venezuela. The land seizure ordered two years ago involved 3,700 acres. Chavez has nationalised large swathes of Venezuela's economy, including much of its vital oil sector, and has taken over big farms deemed idle, giving them to small farmers in an effort to stimulate farming and combat poverty. McGann said Venezuelan retail business needed Smurfit's services. "Without us, there won't be any products packaged in Venezuela, and that would be a serious problem. As it is, a lot of products on the supermarket shelves are in short supply. If they haven't got packaging, they are going to be in serious short supply." SOFTENING DEMAND Smurfit's Latin American operations accounted for 22 percent of its 507 million euro first-half adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), thanks to strong performances from Venezuela and Argentina. Smurfit reaffirmed it full-year targets for 2011 on Thursday, saying it was still targeting a reduction of its total net debt to 2.85 billion euros by the end of the year from 3 billion at end-June. McGann added that the group saw demand in its European businesses softening in the second half of the year as a result of countries cutting their gross domestic product (GDP) forecasts. "A good benchmark for our business in general is GDP, so the GDP growth levels that you begin to see reforecasting in Europe at about 1.5 percent really says second half (demand) will be soft," McGann said. "Obviously the mix between Eastern Europe and Western Europe is quite significant." (Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Will Waterman)