Hundreds of people continued to protest the alleged United States' hostile actions against Cuba on Tuesday outside the US interests office, the country's de facto embassy.

The silent demonstration under the so-called "Forest of Flags," facing the US mission in Havana, opened Monday evening and will continue until Tuesday night.

Demonstrators took turns in holding up pictures of 138 people whom the Cuban government says have died as a result of US actions against Cuba.

The forest of 138 black flags blocks the messages displayed on a luminous screen set on one of the upper floors of the US interests office building. The protest was opened by Cuban President Fidel Castro, government officials and relatives of the victims.

Each flag has a single white star in the center, representing individual Cubans killed in what Havana describes as US-sponsored terrorism.

Demonstrators wore black shirts, signifying mourning for the dead, among whom were the 73 passengers of a Cuban airliner blown up in 1976.

By the end of the protest, some 7,000 people will have taken part, according to the organizers.

The US has kept Cuba under an economic embargo for some 45 years.

(Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2006)