Cuban President Fidel Castro has accused the United States of harboring a Cuban exile on terrorism charges and vowed to continue the battle for extradition, the local press reported on Thursday.

Castro said he could not believe the US government does not know the whereabouts of Luis Posada Carrilles, who was accused of involvement in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed all 73 passengers and crew aboard.

Posada Carrilles, a Cuban-born exile with Venezuelan citizenship, was also accused of killing an Italian tourist in 1997 in a wave of bomb blasts in Havana.

Both Cuban and Venezuelan governments quoted Posada's attorney as saying that suspected terrorist was now in the United States and had applied for asylum there. But US officials said he was not in their custody.

"We will continue with the battle," Castro said Wednesday.

"Now people have to think why it (asylum) was tolerated," said the Cuban leader, adding that US President George W. Bush should be denounced for allowing a terrorist to enter his country.

Venezuelan Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel on Thursday also urged the US government to cooperate in the battle against terrorism and extradite Posada.

Venezuela's Supreme Court last Thursday ruled that the government should seek extradition from the United States of Posada, who escaped from prison in Caracas in 1985.

Posada was jailed in Panama in November 2000 in connection with a plot to kill Cuban leader Castro, but he was pardoned last year.

Source: Xinhua