Cuba's President Raul Castro and Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez have criticised the US during a key alternative trade summit in Havana.

Mr Castro accused the US of treating Latin America as its "backyard" and denounced a deal giving US armed forces access to Colombian military bases.

Meanwhile Mr Chavez said US criticism about Latin America's relationship with Iran was an "imperial offensive".

Both were speaking at the opening of the left-wing Alba summit in Havana.

A regional political and economic bloc, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of America (Alba), was founded five years ago as a radical alternative to America's free trade policies in the region.

The BBC's correspondent in Havana Michael Voss says Mr Castro's harsh rhetoric was reminiscent of the Cold War.

It could be a signal that ties between Cuba and the US might be taking a turn for the worse.

Mr Castro said: "On the one side, there's an exploitative model of dependence subordinated to the interests of the empire, on the other, the advance of revolutionary and progressive forces, representing the disposed."

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