Cuban leader Fidel Castro has called on the US government to immediately arrest Luis Posada, whom he described as a terrorist, and proceed with his deportationto Venezuela, where he has to stand trial, the local press reported Tuesday.

In his first public comments on the issue this month, Castro said Monday evening that the most convenient thing for the White House and the combat against terrorism is to arrest Posada, who isof Cuban origin.

Castro said Cuba would accept that Posada be sent to an international tribunal or Venezuela, stressing that his country isnot interested in either bringing him back to Cuba for trial or having him sentenced to death. "We are not going to ask for him, the whole world knows we won't," he said.

"What we are demanding is that justice be done," he added.

Posada, a Cuban native who has Venezuelan citizenship, was tried and acquitted twice in connection with the 1976 Cuban Airlines bombing which killed 73 people aboard. He is wanted for escaping from a prison in Venezuela in 1985 while awaiting a prosecutor's appeal in that case.

Posada and three associates were then imprisoned in Panama for their roles in an alleged plot in 2000 to kill Castro at a conference in that country. They were pardoned last year.

His whereabouts had not been known until he reappeared in Marchin Miami, the United States, where he illegally entered and requested political asylum.

Posada's attorney Eduardo Soto said on April 13 that his clienthad entered the United States in March and was seeking asylum on the grounds that his life would be in "immediate danger" if he were deported.

Source: Xinhua