Cuba offers rum to pay off $276m Czech Republic debt

Cuba has come up with an unusual way to repay its multimillion dollar debt to the Czech Republic - bottles of its famous rum, officials in Prague say.

The Czech finance ministry said Havana had raised this possibility during recent negotiations on the issue.

Cuba owes the Czech authorities $276m (£222m), and if the offer is accepted the Czechs would have enough Cuban rum for more than a century.

However, Prague said it preferred to get at least some of the money in cash.

Havana's debt dates back from the Cold War era - when Cuba and what was at the time Czechoslovakia were part of the communist bloc.

Cuba now does not have much money but it does have lots of rum - hence this unusual proposal

The Czech finance ministry said repayment was possible either with rum or pharmaceutical drugs.

But Cuban drugs lack EU certification, so repayment with a more traditional medicine - popular in the Czech Republic - may be easier to arrange, our correspondent adds.