The United States has received offers of aid and messages of sympathy from a number of countries often at odds with Washington.

Iran, Cuba and Venezuela have offered to send humanitarian aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina.

"If Iran's help is needed and requested we'd respond to the call, however we should make sure first that there is such a request," said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi.

Cuban President Fidel Castro announced in a live television broadcast on Friday that he had just issued a second offer to the United States to send Cuban doctors to help care for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The "(US) authorities are going through a difficult time, we are not asking for anything," said Castro, whose country has not had diplomatic relations with the United States in more than four decades.

Also on Friday, Venezuela made formal an offer to send planeloads of aid, including several hundred of soldiers and rescue volunteers, to the United States. In a message sent to the US Embassy, the Venezuelan Government said it was willing to send fuel, water purification plants and more than 50 tons of canned food and water to the United States.

The Red Cross of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has expressed sympathy to its US counterpart over the damage caused by the hurricane, saying it hoped "the living of the inhabitants in the afflicted areas return to normal as early as possible," its official KCNA agency reported.

Source: China Daily