Havana/Port-au-Prince/Mexico City  - Hurricane Ike was by Monday a serious threat to the whole of Cuba.

As early as Sunday afternoon, the surging sea in north-eastern Cuba had built waves several metres tall and forced its way deep into the coastal towns in the province of Holguin.

By 10 pm local time, when the eye of the storm made landfall near Punta Lucrecia, some 800,000 people had already been taken to safety. Power was down, and people throughout the region waited in complete darkness for Ike to pass.

Communist Cuba's elderly revolutionary leader Fidel Castro published an article Monday under the headline "Besieged by hurricanes."

Havana - Cuba on Sunday had evacuated 250,000 people ahead of Hurricane Ike, a monster storm carrying 215-kilometre-per-hour winds toward the Caribbean island's eastern regions, local media reported.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, said the storm was about 155 kilometres east-north-east of Guantanamo Cuba, where the US maintains its military prison for terrorist suspects.

Ike was an "extremely dangerous" category 4 storm expected to hit eastern and central Cuba Sunday evening and central Cuba by late Monday, weather experts said.

Havana  - Cuban dissidents sent an open letter to United States President George W Bush to temporarily lift restrictions on Cuba so that voluntary organizations and Cubans living abroad could send aid to the victims of Hurricane Gustav.

"We ask you to at least, for a period of two months, lift restrictions from the embargo that pertain to the ties between exiled Cubans and those who live on the island, referring to remittances, packages and travels," said the letter, which was made public Thursday in Havana.

Havana  - Hurricane Gustav hit Cuba like an atomic bomb last weekend, said the island's ailing former leader Fidel Castro.

In a commentary published under his name in the Communist Party daily Granma on Wednesday, Castro said the storm caused damages estimated at many hundreds of thousands of dollars.

This amount would be needed only to satisfy the most elementary needs of the population, the 82-year-old former president said under the headline "A Nuclear Blow."

Havana  - Cuban leader Fidel Castro sent a message of support to Cubans affected by Hurricane Gustav, in an article published Monday in the Communist Party daily Granma and other state media.

"Only just ideas defended with courage, dignity and firmness survive," Castro said.

The man who led the country for close to half a century and formally gave up power in February due to health problems, extended support to citizens in western Cuba, which was devastated by Hurricane Gustav over the weekend.

Havana - The Cuban government evacuated areas of the country's west as hurricane Gustav approached, prompting authorities in the island country elevate to the highest state of readiness.

According to Cuban state television, cities and communities from Pinar del Rio in the furthermost west of the country to the capital Havana were taking all preparations necessary to protect the population against the hurricane, which had reached winds of up to 140 kilometres per hour.

Weather services anticipate that Gustav would reach Cuba by Saturday afternoon.