President Hu Jintao of China is set to meet Cuban leader Raul Castro later in the day as part of his multi-stop tour of the US and Latin America.

The two nations are agreeing multiple deals on trade and loans as China bid to strengthen its links with Latin American and Caribbean nations.

Three U.S. firms have been fined more than $43,000 for breaking the U.S. blockade, according to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and reported by Notimex.

Russian companies will drill for oil and natural gas on and off the island of Cuba. A standing Russian credit line to Cuba for buying Russian wheat and cars is now extended to until 2011. Russia will build new rail lines on Cuban territory. There will also be joint projects in aircraft- and shipbuilding.

The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly for the 17th year in a row on Wednesday to demand an end to the 46-year-old US
trade embargo on communist-ruled Cuba, with only three countries saying no.

"The real reason the Cuban economy is in terrible condition and that so many Cubans remain mired in poverty is that Cuba's regime continues to deny its people their basic human and economic rights," he told the General Assembly.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and European Commissioner of Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel, signed a declaration on Thursday to restore the bilateral cooperation at the headquarters of the Cuban Foreign Ministry in Havana.

Estimate means reserves are on a par with US

Ivan Melnikov, the Russian vice president of Parliament, has called on the United States to end its economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba, in place for almost 50 years, and the repeal of the anti-Cuban Helms-Burton Act.

Russia intends to share its space technology with Cuba, and has begun discussions on building a space center in the country, the Russian space agency said on Wednesday.

Russian army bases in Cuba may still become a reality. Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov, the president of the Academy of Geopolitical Sciences, stated Monday that the retrieval of the Russian military presence in Cuba may become a real response to the ongoing increase of the US military and political pressure on Russia.

Russia would cross "a red line for the United States of America" if it were to base nuclear capable bombers in Cuba, a top US air force officer warned on Tuesday.