Cuban president condemns US provocation
Cuban President Fidel Castro has condemned the "provocative" messages published by Washington on an electronic billboard installed last Monday on the fifth floor of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, media reports here said Thursday.

Castro lashed out at the U.S. "provocative messages" during a surprise visit on Wednesday night to workers building a structure in front of the U.S. Interests Section that will apparently block the view of the electronic billboard.

Construction work on Tuesday night, hours after Castro and hundreds of thousands of Cubans marched past the mission to protest the 1.5-meter-high billboard which displays human rights messages such as quotes from civil rights leader Martin Luther King and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The island would not be conquered or dominated as long as thereis a single patriot alive to fight, Castro said, adding that Cuba is "invulnerable militarily and politically and is on the way to being invulnerable economically."

The Cuban leader also said Cuba has won the admiration and sympathy of the whole world for its firmness.

The governments of Cuba and United States have not had formal diplomatic relations for 45 years. Without a full embassy, the U.S. government has an Interests Section here under the Swiss Embassy in Havana to handle consular affairs such as visa processing. Cuba has a similar Interests Section in Washington.