'Bomb-plot' Cuban seeks US asylum

Cuba has wanted dissident Luis Posada Carriles for years

A Cuban exile accused by President Fidel Castro of plotting to kill him has applied for asylum in the US, his lawyer has said.

Luis Posada Carriles is also wanted in Venezuela over the bombing of a Cuban airliner in 1976, in which 73 people were killed.

Mr Carriles has been in hiding for months and managed to cross illegally into the US from Mexico some weeks ago.

On Tuesday, Mr Castro demanded to know how he had breached US border security.

He called Mr Carriles, 77, "a monster" comparable to Osama Bin Laden.

On Tuesday, Mr Carriles' lawyer said his client's asylum application would be based partly on his claim that he worked "directly and indirectly" for the CIA for years, and had thus helped US interests.

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

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.

He has been in hiding since then.