Cuba has called off a planned baseball tour of Nicaragua by its national squad.

The cancellation comes amid a diplomatic dispute between the two countries over the fate of around two-hundred Cuban asylum-seekers.

The Cubans, including several baseball players, fled earlier this year and landed in the Bahamas.

Nicaragua offered them temporary asylum, but the Bahamas still repatriated the group to Cuba.

In a bitter exchange, Cuba said that if the Nicaraguan President, Arnoldo Aleman, were so generous he could have any other Cubans except these.

Mr Aleman responded by saying Cuba's problems could be resolved if just two Cubans, Fidel Castro and his brother, Raul, took asylum in Nicaragua.