Castro: 'I Will Die Fighting' if U.S. Invades Cuba

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Fidel Castro vowed on Friday to die fighting "with a gun in my hand" if the United States invaded Cuba to overthrow his communist government.

"I don't care how I die, but for sure, if they invade us, I will die fighting," the 77-year-old leader said at a meeting of anti-free trade activists from across the hemisphere.

Castro, who was the target of countless CIA assassination plots in the 1960s, called on the Bush administration to clarify to the world what its policy was on assassinating foreign leaders.

Earlier this month, Bush Administration officials accused Cuba of joining forces with Venezuela's leftist government to destabilize democratic governments in Latin America.

President Bush last year named a commission to speed up a post-Castro transition to democratic rule in Cuba.

Havana is worried that Cuba could be the next on Bush's list for a regime change after Iraq.

"We don't want a conflict, but we will not give an inch on our principles," Castro said in a rambling five-and-a-half-hour speech.

Castro said Cuba was prepared to resist invasion, with "hundreds of thousands" of soldiers ready to defend the island with guerrilla tactics he had used in the Sierra Maestra mountains to defeat a dictator's army and seize power in 1959.

He said instructions have been given in the case he were to die in a surgical strike.

"This nation will never surrender ... We have taken all the measures. Everyone knows what to do," Castro said.

Western diplomats said Cuban authorities were preparing the population for a possible invasion with training drills.

Castro said Washington "should explain to the world what its position is on its powers to order assassinations."

A U.S. presidential directive from the 1970s banned the assassination of foreign leaders, but the Bush Administration appeared to waive the ban when it made clear that Iraq's Saddam Hussein was to be considered a target before last year's invasion.

Castro spoke to more than 1,000 activists, from Andean Indians and landless Brazilians to Canadian postal workers, who met in Havana to plan protests against the U.S.-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas.

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Castro accuses Bush of plotting to assassinate him

HAVANA (AFP) - Cuban leader Fidel Castro (news - web sites) accused US President George W. Bush (news - web sites) of ordering his assassination and vowed to "go down fighting" if there was a US invasion.

In a five hour speech, Cuba's 77-year-old communist president shot down rumours about his health and heightened his attacks on the "belligerent behavior" of the United States and its leader.

"We knew that Mr. Bush had made a commitment with the mafia of the Cuban-American Foundation to kill me. I accuse him of this," Castro told some 1,000 representatives from 32 nations attending a conference in Havana against the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas.

"This dead man can still talk. This dead man can make plans. This dead man ... is not dead yet," Castro said Friday.

Castro has been at the centre of rumours about his health since the mayor of Bogota, Luis Eduardo Garzon, said after a recent visit to Cuba that he had found Castro "very sick" and "physically limited".

Castro said that Bush had conspired with the anti-communist Cuban-American community in Florida to kill him.

Tensions have been rising again between the United States and Cuba in recent month with Bush entering into a re-election campaign and Castro cracking down on the pro-democracy opposition in the island he has ruled for 45 years.

Castro said that Cuba does not want "a war (against) Yankee imperialism" but he insisted that the communist "will not budge at all from our principles."

The Cuban leader was given thunderous applause when he said: "I am not asking to survive a war. I've already done my part and I still have to do what I have to do. With weapons in hand, I don't care how I die, but I'm confident that if they invade us, I will go down fighting."

He went on "These idiots had better not believe we're wasting our time, because we really work at our job. This country will never give up. It will never lay down its weapons."

Castro spent much of his improvised address discussing the history of North and South America and the world, criticizing "neo-liberal capitalism" and globalization.

But he also spent 45 minutes reading news agency reports of what he called "hostile" statements by senior US officials.

Bush has set up a special government commission to monitor events in Cuba and at a recent summit of the Americas in Mexico called on other leaders to work for a speedy and peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba.

The US administration has also sought to increase pressure on Latin American nations which it considers have been too friendly with Castro.

Roger Noriega, the US under secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, recently accused Cuba of "actions to destabilize Latin America (that) are increasingly provocative to the inter-American community."

He has said that the United States will quickly send aid to Cuba after Castro's death.

"Castro will not live forever and there will be democratic change and a democratic government in Cuba," Noriega said. "The stakes are very high for us."

Cuba has in turn stepped up island-wide preparations for any kind of attack from the United States.

The 130,000 committees of the defence of the revolution and other local organisations have been told to "step up revolutionary vigilance".

The Cuban parliament, highlighting what it called the "increasing aggressiveness of the United States" has ordered an increase in defence spending, which had been cut in recent years.

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