A former agent of the American CIA, Philip Agee, has launched a new Internet business in Havana to promote tourism in Cuba.

Mr Agee, speaking in an interview with Reuters news agency, said he hoped the venture would help open Cuba to the world and the world to Cuba, and make a small break in the US trade embargo. The website has been set up in partnership with the Cuban state tourism company. Mr Agee left the CIA during the Vietnam War in 1968 and later exposed undercover agents around the world through lectures and writing.

Many CIA officers regard him as a traitor and say he worked for the Cuban intelligence service - a charge he denies.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service