MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

U.N. votes against U.S. embargo on Cuba for 16th year

The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to urge the United States to end its 46-year-old trade embargo against Cuba after its foreign minister accused the U.S. of stepping up its “brutal economic war” to new heights.

"The blockade had never been enforced with such viciousness as over the last year," Felipe Perez Roque told the assembly, accusing U.S. President George W. Bush's administration of adopting "new measures bordering on madness and fanaticism" that have not only hurt Cuba but interfered with its relations with at least 30 countries. It was the 16th straight year that the 192-member world body approved a resolution calling for the U.S. economic and commercial embargo against Cuba to be repealed "as soon as possible." Delegates in the General Assembly chamber burst into applause when the vote in favor of the resolution flashed on the screen â€" 184 to 4 with 1 abstention. That was a one-vote improvement over last year's vote of 183 to 4 with 1 abstention.