HAVANA - Cuban purchases of United States food will fall by at least a third this year as the island slashes imports to stabilize an ever weak economy further hammered by the global economic crisis, a top trade official said Monday.

Igor Montero, head of the state import company Alimport, calculated that the communist government would spend less than $590 million on American food in 2009 once banking, shipping and other transaction costs are included. That's down at least 32 percent from last year's $870 million.

Montero blamed the economic crisis, but also took a swipe at Washington's 47-year-old trade embargo, even though it exempts food, arguing that America should begin buying Cuban products and allowing its citizens to visit the island as tourists.

(AP)