Cuba on Wednesday welcomed the UN General Assembly's adoption of a resolution against Washington's sanctions on Cuba.

"The economic war unleashed by the US against Cuba, the longest and most ruthless ever known, qualifies as an act of genocide and constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations," Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque told the Assembly after its voting, according to news reaching Havan from the UN headquarters in New York.

He said the US blockade had caused an economic damage to Cuba of over US$86 billion.

The Assembly earlier on Wednesday adopted the resolution with 183 in favor, four against and one abstention, calling on the United States to end its economic, commercial and financial embargo against Cuba, which began in 1962. Only Israel, Marshall Islands and Palau joined the United States to vote against the resolution.

Since 1992, it was the 15th consecutive year for the UN organ to voice a similar concern about the unilateral sanctions imposed by the United States on the Caribbean island country.

(Xinhua News Agency November 9, 2006)