HAVANA, Dec 17 (Reuters) - The Cuban government of President Fidel Castro on Thursday condemned the U.S. attack against Iraq as an ``imperialist abuse'' that threatened world peace and said it was based on unconvincing pretexts.
``Cuba rejects, denounces and condemns this unilateral exercise of force by the United States, as on previous occasions Cuba has expressed its total repudiation of these illegitimate practices which should stop immediately,'' a foreign ministry statement said.
Havana urged the U.N. Security Council to take steps to stop the U.S. and British air strikes, which began on Wednesday, and called on the international community to condemn them.
``Today Iraq is the victim of imperialist abuse. Tomorrow someone else could be the target of such dangerous behaviour,'' added the statement, which was published on the front page of the ruling Communist Party's daily newspaper Granma.
``Once again, peace is trampled on, norms of international law are violated, and the physical security of the Iraqi people ignored, with arguments that don't and can't convince international public opinion,'' the statement said.
``Obviously, these attacks do not represent any solution for the problems concerning Iraq, nor do they help to consolidate peace and international security. They work precisely in the opposite way.''
Decades-old political foes, Cuba and the United States have been without diplomatic relations since soon after Castro's 1959 revolution.
09:51 12-17-98
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