Cuban Leader Raul Castro on Monday called for solidarity between Latin America and the Caribbean to efficiently handle the coming "disaster" brought by the international financial crisis.

Castro said during the beginning of the third Cuba-Caribbean Community (Caricom) summit that cooperation will be needed to boost the equity and welfare of people in the face of the global crisis. Cuba is not a member of Caricom.

Castro and other 14 area governors attended the one-day summit in Santiago de Cuba, about 730 kilometers southeast of Havana.

The situation has been more difficult for Caribbean countries, Castro said, because of the regional devastation caused by the hurricane season.

The "success and survival (of Latin America and the Caribbean) depend on all countries, small or big, rich or poor, without renouncing their national particularities," Castro said.

Despite its own difficulties, Castro said Cuba will continue to assist small Caribbean nations with medicine and education.

Castro announced that next year Cuba will offer 480 scholarships, 150 of them in medicine, for students of the region.

Cuba will also open three ophthalmic centers in Guyana, Saint Lucia and Jamaica, setting up a large service network with the capacity to perform surgeries on 215 patients per day, Castro said.

(Xinhua News Agency December 9, 2008)