Cuban government asks US to lift embargo during hurricane disaster

Havana - As yet another massive hurricane bore down on its eastern region Sunday, the Cuban government has asked the United States to lift its embargo on trade in certain materials needed to survive and rebuild after the devastation of Hurricane Gustav. In an appeal issued Saturday by Cuba's foreign ministry, the government asked Washington to allow North American companies to extend credit to Cuba to buy goods needed during the desperate recovery efforts. The call echoed an appeal last week from Cuban dissident groups who sent an open letter to United States President George W Bush asking for a temporarily lift of restrictions on Cuba so that voluntary organizations and Cubans living abroad could send aid to the victims of Hurricane Gustav. Even as it was trying to provide shelter for people from the estimated 100,000 homes destroyed or damaged by Gustav, the Caribbean island's western region was battening down for Hurricane Ike - a category 4 storm on the five-part Saffir-Simpson scale. Ike was expected to make landfall Sunday evening in Cuba, including around Guantanamo where the US military operates a prison for suspected terrorists. Gustav also destroyed millions of dollars in crops. On Thursday, Cuban dissidents wrote a letter to US President George W Bush asking for a moratorium on the decades-old embargo in place against the communist-ruled island. 'We ask you to at least, for a period of two months, lift restrictions from the embargo that pertain to the ties between exiled Cubans and those who live on the island, referring to remittances, packages and travels,' said a letter signed by Martha Beatriz Roque and Vladimiro Roca, representatives of a dissident group called Agenda For Transition. Cuban leader Fidel Castro likened the devastation form Gustav to that of an 'atom bomb' in an article last week. Gustav hit western Cuba on August 30 as a category-4 hurricane, with winds of more than 230 kilometres per hour. The smaller island, Isla de la Juventud, and the region of Pinar del Rio were particularly devastated. Aid planes from Russia have already started ferrying tents and other items to Cuba for those left homeless by the storm, and China and other countries have promised help.