US offers aid to storm-hit Cuba

THE US government has offered Cuba humanitarian aid for its citizens affected by Hurricane Gustav, but through non-government channels, the State Department said yesterday.

"The US government did inform the Cuban government on September 3 that we are prepared to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to Cuban citizens affected by Hurricane Gustav," said Joanne Moore, a department spokeswoman.

She did not know whether Cuba had yet responded to the offer. Moore, reading from the department's written guidance on the subject, said the US government would work "through the appropriate non-government organisations to deliver the relief provisions as quickly as possible." She added: "This is a response to a humanitarian emergency and the US government has long supported humanitarian effort on behalf of the Cuban people." In a column in Cuban state media last Wednesday, Cuba's longtime leader Fidel Castro said the hurricane hit his country like a nuclear blast, and estimated it would take three to four billion dollars to cope with the emergency. Cuban dissidents asked Bush to allow exiles living in the US to send aid to fellow Cubans.AFP