Eye care surgery for Jamaica

This as Havana renews its cooperation with its Caribbean neighbours.



The Cuban president says that despite the adverse world economic situation, Cuba would fulfil its promises to its neighbours.



In the field of education, Castro said that 480 university scholarships would be offered next year, 150 of them in the field of medicine.



He says that Cuba can be proud of its contribution to greater exchanges and closer relations among Caribbean peoples as well as to the promotion of a more effective cooperation between Cuba and the CARICOM.



CARICOM leaders used the Cuba-CARICOM summit to call for an immediate end to the decades old United States economic blockade against Cuba.



The group\'s chairman, Baldwin Spencer, described the blockade as a relic of the past that subsists, despite general international rejection.



CARICOM leaders also issued a call for changes in the world financial system, in light of the global economic downturn.



Spencer, who is also the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, said that the small Caribbean countries were facing greater challenges in the current chaotic situation, which puts social and economic achievements in danger.



Prime Minister Bruce Golding was also among those attending the summit.