HAVANA: Cuba says it will donate its revenues from a world baseball tournament to Hurricane Katrina victims if the Bush administration reverses a controversial decision to bar Cuba's participation.

"The Cuban Baseball Federation, in an effort to find options, would be ready for the money corresponding to its participation in the classic to go to the victims of Hurricane Katrina left homeless in New Orleans," the federation said in a letter to US Major League Baseball sent a week ago and released on Thursday.

The United States denied Major League Baseball a licence that would allow Cuba to play in the inaugural World Baseball Classic in March on the grounds Cuba would reap the 1 per cent of tournament revenues due for each participant and 5 per cent if it won.

Cuba labelled the Bush administration's position as "shameful" and "absurd" and "having nothing to do with sports."

The decision also brought protests from the US Olympic Committee, Major League Baseball, numerous politicians and others.

Puerto Rico's baseball federation announced on Thursday it would not host the games if the Cubans were not allowed to participate.

The World Baseball Classic is an 18-day, 16-team World Cup-style tournament scheduled to begin on March 3 that will bring together some of the world's best baseball players on teams representing their home countries.

Cuban President Fidel Castro, an ideological foe of the United States for more than 40 years, had given the go-ahead for his nation to participate.

But Cuba would have needed a special licence from the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces the US economic embargo against Cuba.

The Treasury Department refused to grant the licence.

"Generally speaking, the Cuba embargo prohibits entering into contracts in which Cuba or Cuban nationals have an interest," Treasury Department spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said in a written statement.

The tournament starts in Tokyo and ends in San Diego and many of the games will be played in the United States, which has been a magnet for the defection of a host of Cuba's best players seeking multimillion-dollar big-league contracts.

Despite the drain of talent, Cuba won the gold medal for baseball at the 1992, 1996 and 2004 Olympics, falling to the United States in the finals at the 2000 Games.

Source: China Daily