The former Argentine football star, Diego Maradona, has arrived in Cuba to begin a drugs rehabilitation programme which is being personally supervised by President, Fidel Castro.

Looking shaky and slurring his words as he stepped off a flight from Buenos Aires, Maradona said he trusted Cuban medicine to cure him.

Doctors say he will have to stay in Cuba for at least three months if the treatment is to succeed.

Maradona was diagnosed as having a severe heart condition after being admitted to hospital in Uruguay two weeks ago after a cocaine overdose.

He's had repeated treatment in the past for drug abuse.

The BBC correspondent in Havana says that Cuba has developed treatments for drug addicts as a way of earning hard currency.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service