CARACAS, Oct 20 (Reuters) - The president of Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA on Thursday slammed a report of a legal appeal to let the embattled firm pay bondholders in the increasingly worthless bolivar currency.

Local news site El Estimulo reported on Thursday that an unidentified petitioner had appealed to the Supreme Court to let PDVSA pay investors who hold dollar-denominated bonds issued on the local market in the Venezuelan currency.

"This is how the nation-hating right-wing wages its economic war and sabotages the bond swap," PDVSA boss Eulogio Del Pino said on Twitter, posting the article.

Markets have been jittery after PDVSA's bond swap was extended several times due to low participation and the company warned that if the operation failed it could struggle to pay its debts. Still, PDVSA bonds were broadly up on Thursday, recovering from several days of losses.

Socialist-run Venezuela is in the midst of an acute economic crisis worsened by the tumble in oil prices. Cash-strapped PDVSA is offering a $5.3 billion bond swap to try to ease its debt burden amid fears of a default further down the line.

President Nicolas Maduro has said over and over that Venezuela and PDVSA would meet their hefty payments, criticizing an alleged conspiracy to undermine his leftist government by fanning fears of a debt crisis.

PDVSA did not immediately respond to a request for further information.

(Reporting by Alexandra Ulmer; Editing by Sandra Maler)