Cuban President Fidel Castro paraded a small army of doctors, white-coated and carrying green knapsacks of supplies, at the Havana convention center Sunday night, after they dutifully reported for duty from all over the island.

"Forty-eight hours have passed and we have received no response to our offer. We will wait patiently," said Castro, who increased his offer to 1,586 doctors and 34 tonnes of medicine while insisting it was not politically motivated.

"We're ready. There's a disaster in the United States, medical coverage is not sufficient, but ideology stands in the way," doctor Rafael Vera, 43, told AFP. "We lament that politics takes precedence while lives are being lost."

Castro often deploys his doctors around the world and underscores inequities in the US health system, under which 40 million US citizens have inadequate medical care.

Cuba and its northern neighbor have no diplomatic relations and regularly refuse one another's help. Cuba rejected the 50,000 dollars Washington offered in the wake of hurricanes in 2004 and this year, and Washington declined Cuba's offer of help after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Venezuela, which also has testy relations with the United States, has offered one million gallons of gasoline for Katrina victims and five million dollars for a field hospital, water and other essential supplies for the tens of thousands of victims.

A Venezuelan official said Monday that Citgo, a subsidiary of Venezuela's state-owned oil company, was sheltering 45,500 storm victims in three of its facilities in Louisiana and Texas.

"This forms part of the aid from our country," Civil Protection director Antonio Rivero told Globovision television.

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