Havana  - Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived for a visit to Cuba hours after the two countries had signed a series of economic agreements.

Hu, who last visited the Caribbean island in 2004, arrived Monday in Havana for a two-day stay that is to have an economic focus.

A statement by Cuba's government said the trip was a gesture of the deep friendship between the two Communist countries.

Havana - Cuban President Raul Castro replaced his foreign investment minister after the agency reported a drop in the number of state firms receiving foreign investment.

The announcement of the cabinet change was made Wednesday night on state-run television and did not give a reason for removing Marta Lomas, 58, and replacing her with UN Ambassador Rodrigo Malmierca, 52.

The Category 4 Hurricane Paloma, which created havoc on the Cuban Coast, weakened into a tropical depression in less than a day. Hurricane Paloma had hit Cuba with strong winds exceeding 240 kmph and a powerful sea surge sent waves almost a mile (11/2kilometers) inland as the storm ravaged Santa Cruz del Sur.

Civil Defense authorities said More than 10-foot-high (3-meter-high) waves washed away nearly all traces of about 50 modest houses in Santa Cruz del Sur, in all destroying 435 homes.

Havana/Miami  - The first reports late Sunday from Cuba following Hurricane Paloma described relatively modest damage from the storm.

The initial assessments were a relief on the island, where rebuilding was still underway from two earlier storms during the current hurricane season.

The only significant damage was reported from the coastal city of Santa Cruz del Sur, where the storm made landfall Saturday night with reported wind speeds of 195 kilometres per hour.

Havana - Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage said on the eve of elections in the United States that the world needs a US president who is rational and intelligent, rather than mad.

"That can't be too much to ask," said Lage, who is considered a supporter of economic liberalization on the communist-ruled island.

He spoke at the opening of a trade fair in Havana.

US President George W Bush, who leaves office in January after eight years, has been a harsh critic of the Cuban regime.

Havana - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva met with the ailing former Cuban president Fidel Castro, whom he said he found "very lucid and active."

Lula and the elderly Castro - who formally stepped down from the Cuban presidency in February to pursue his recovery for unspecified health problems - met for some two hours just before the end of the Brazilian's less-than-24-hour visit to Cuba.