odsreader is a Python module which provides a simple, text-based interface to an OpenOffice.org spreadsheet file and doesn't depend on the Python-UNO modules. Using it is as simple as just giving it the path name to your spreadsheet file. For example:
#!/usr/bin/env python
from odsreader import *
rows = odsreader("spreadsheet.ods")
for row in rows:
print row
Download: odsreader.py