More than one-hundred thousand Cuban women have marched through the capital, Havana, to press for the return from the United States of a six-year-old Cuban boy, Elian Gonzalez, who's at the centre of a bitter custody dispute.

Mothers and pregnant women from all over the capital were bussed from their places of work to take part in the rally, which was led by members of the boy's family on the island.

The boy, whose mother drowned while trying to reach the US, was rescued off the Florida coast last November.

The US immigration authorities have decided that he should return to Cuba, but Friday's deadline for him to be sent back was postponed to allow his relatives in Miami and Cuban exile groups to challenge the ruling in a federal court.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service