Washington: US President George W Bush said that US would work for "Cuban freedom" to end the "tyranny" of Fidel Castro to "assist" the nation and called for tightening restrictions on cash flows to Cuba.

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"It is a strategy that says we're not waiting for the day of Cuban freedom, we are working for the day of freedom in Cuba," Bush said after meeting members of 'The Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba", which he created six months ago.

Among the recommendations in the commission's 500-page report is a robust support of the Cuban Opposition and measures to limit the regimes "manipulation" of humanitarian policies and to undermine its survival strategies.

As part of the "immediate" action, the commission suggests "hastening the end of the Cuban dictatorship."

Receiving a report from the Commission for Assistance to Free Cuba, Bush said, "We believe the people of Cuba should be free from tyranny. We believe the future of Cuba is a future of freedom.

"It's in our nation's interest that Cuba be free. It's in the neighbourhood's interest that Cuba be free. More importantly, it's in the interest of the Cuban people that they be free from tyranny," he said.

The Commission recommended $ 59 million over the next two years to be committed to the purpose.

From this, up to $ 36 million would be used to carry out democracy-building activities, support for the family members of the political Opposition and to support efforts to help youth, women, and Afro-Cubans take their rightful place in the pro-democracy movement.

Up to $ 18 million would be used for regular airborne broadcasts to Cuba and the purchase of a dedicated airborne platform for the transmission of Radio and Television Martf into Cuba. Some $ five million would be for public diplomacy efforts to disseminate information abroad about US foreign policy, including "Castro's record of abusing human rights, harbouring terrorists, espionage, subversion of democratically-elected Governments in South America".

The Commission also recommended limiting recipients of remittances and gift parcels to immediate family members, while denying remittances and gift parcels to certain Cuban officials and Communist Party members.