The United States on Tuesday renewed an offer to send experts to Cuba to see how much more disaster US aid is needed to an island hit by yet another hurricane, the State Department said.
The State Department said Cuba declined its offer last week to send a team to assess the damage from Hurricane Gustav on August 30, but decided to renew the offer after Hurricane Ike hit.
In the meantime, the United States has gone ahead with distributing 100,000 dollars in disaster aid to non-government relief groups working with Cuba, the State Department said.
"In response to Ike … we've offered through diplomatic channels to send the humanitarian assessment team to Cuba in order to determine the additional needs," according to Heide Bronke, a State Department spokeswoman.
The offer was made again on Tuesday, Bronke told AFP.
On Tuesday Hurricane Ike lashed the country's northwest and its crumbling capital Havana, tearing off roofs, uprooting trees, and leaving four dead.
Just over a week ago, Gustav charged into the Caribbean island's westernmost province and destroyed or severely damaged 140,000 homes and buildings before heading to the US Gulf of Mexico coastline.
On Saturday, when Cuba declined the first US offer, Havana urged Washington to ease its trade embargo to allow US firms to open private lines of credit for food imports to the communist-ruled island as second hurricane loomed.
The State Department says its decision to contact Havana is in keeping with past US moves to send disaster aid to Cuba and does not mark a shift in US government policy toward isolating the Communist island nation.
