Amid uncertainty over the health of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has urged the world to press for multiparty elections in Cuba.
In a message broadcast five days after Mr Castro handed his brother Raul provisional control over the government he has led uninterrupted for 47 years, Ms Rice stressed that the US would not take advantage of Mr Castro's illness to invade Cuba.
Last month US President George W Bush raised funding for efforts to support a 'transition to democracy' in post-Castro Cuba to $150 million.
The US administration said the money would be used to boost broadcasts of 'uncensored information' to Cuba via radio and television and to strengthen 'democratic movements' opposed to the Castro regime.
In Havana, Cuban Culture Minister Abel Prieto called on Washington to respect Cuba's institutions and dismissed Ms Rice's message.
Successive US governments have sought unsuccessfully to oust Mr Castro since he since he came to power in 1959, including an ill-fated invasion backed by the CIA in 1961.
