'Bomb-plot' Cuban crosses into US

Cuba has wanted dissident Luis Posada Carriles for years

A Cuban exile, accused by President Fidel Castro of plotting to kill him, is preparing to apply for asylum in the United States, his lawyer says.

Luis Posada Carriles managed to cross illegally into the US from Mexico, lawyer Eduardo Soto said.

Mr Castro called Mr Carriles, 77, "a monster" comparable to Osama Bin Laden, and demanded to know how he had breached US border security.

He is also wanted in Venezuela over the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976.

Seventy-three people were killed in that attack.

Mr Carriles once boasted of being responsible for a series of bomb attacks of Havana tourist spots in the 1990s.

In hiding

Five years ago he was arrested in Panama and accused of plotting to kill Fidel Castro during a summit there.

He was convicted of a lesser charge, but was later pardoned and freed by the outgoing Panamanian president - causing Cuba to break off diplomatic relations.

Since then he has been in hiding.

Mr Soto said he crossed the US-Mexican border some weeks ago, but would not reveal his whereabouts.

In a three-hour appearance on television on Monday, Mr Castro raged: "It is as if Bin Laden were in the United States and the US president did not know."

Mr Soto says his client will apply for asylum on Wednesday.

He says that his application will be based partly on his claim that he worked "directly and indirectly" for the CIA for years, and has thus helped US interests.