President Bush yesterday called on Cuba’s army to overthrow the “dying” regime of Fidel Castro and side with the forces of democracy, the latest attempt by a US president to end Havana’s half century of Communist rule.

Mr Bush, in his first major address on Cuba since Mr Castro fell ill and handed power to his brother Raul last July, laid out new steps to encourage democracy on the island. They included an international “freedom fund” funded by US allies to reconstruct Cuba if it ended one-party rule.

Mr Bush said that while much of Latin America had moved from dictatorship to democracy, Cuba continues to repress and terrorise its people. In a direct message to the Cuban military and police, Mr Bush said “when Cubans rise up to demand the liberty they deserve, you can defend a dying order by using force against your own people” or, he said, the military can embrace democracy.

“There’s a place for you in a free Cuba,” Mr Bush said.

The speech reflected how Administration hopes of a democratic uprising inside Cuba after Mr Castro’s disappearance from public view last year have been dashed. Instead, since Raul, 76, took power, there have been few street protests or unrest inside the government, and little sign of change.

In a reference to Raul Castro, Mr Bush said the US “will not support the old way with new faces.” He predicted that democracy was coming to Cuba, and that the people of Cuba can “hear the dying gasps of a dying regime.” Mr Bush is the tenth US president to call for the overthrow of Castro, who seized power in 1959. The policy of successive US governments, including Mr Bush’s, has been to isolate Cuba economically and diplomatically with the goal of undermining Castro’s rule.

That approach has yet to succeed, however. In recent years Castro has received significant economic aid from Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, and China.

Mr Bush yesterday also offered to provide internet access to Cubans and a scholarship programme for Cuban youth if Havana moved toward democracy. But analysts said such assistance is already coming from Venezuela and Beijing.

In essence, Mr Bush’s speech offered no change in approach to his Administration’s hard line against Cuba. Phil Peters, a Cuba expert at the independent Lexington Institute and a former Reagan and Bush Senior official, told The Times: “The Administration’s policy was predicated on the assumption that Fidel Castro’s departure would be a turning point. That hasn’t happened.

“The US has isolated Cuba but the US is also isolated from Cuba. The US has a lack of influence in Cuba and I don’t think this speech rectifies that.

The initiatives outlined by Bush are pretty marginal.” Mr Peters said that after seeing little change in Cuba despite Mr Castro’s incapacity, Mr Bush speech was “an attempt to get back into the game.”

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