Cuba on Tuesday rebuffed the US charges of harassment against its mission in Havana, saying Washington is making up stories aiming to create a bilateral crisis.
 
The rebuff was carried by the official newspaper Granma after US diplomats told international press that the Cuban government had cut off supplies of electricity and reduced drinking water in a bid to harass them.

Accusing the US officials who had discussed the problems of telling "bare-faced liars," the newspaper said they were trying to create a diplomatic crisis in order to revoke migratory accords and food purchase agreements signed between Cuba and US business people.

The newspaper said that the US office had never been under attack, either overtly or covertly, even though it was using an electronic screen to show anti-Cuban messages.

"These last anti-Cuban imputations have the perfidious objective of distracting the attention from the real problem, which is the subversive and provocative actions of the Special Interests Office," said the newspaper.

It also accused the US office of warehousing material and financing activities to subvert the country's internal order.

"The revolutionary government has given them a lesson in firmness, and acted in strict adherence to diplomatic rules in the face of vulgar, despicable actions," the newspaper said.

Cuba and the United States broke diplomatic relations in 1961.

In 1977, during the administration of then US President Jimmy Carter, the US Interests Office was established under the Swiss Embassy in Havana to handle consular affairs such as visa processing. Cuba has a similar office in Washington.

(Xinhua News Agency June 14, 2006)