HAVANA - FORMER Cuban president Fidel Castro said that his country can talk with US President-elect Barack Obama, as long as he drops the usual 'carrot-and-stick' approach and respects Cuba's sovereignty.

'With Obama you can talk wherever he wants, since we're not preachers for violence or war,' Mr Castro said Thursday on the Cubadebate website.

However, he added, 'he must be reminded that the carrot-and-stick theory cannot be applied in our country.' In an article titled 'Sailing against the tide,' Mr Castro, 82, said 'the empire (his codeword for the United States) must know that our homeland might be turned into dust, but the sovereign rights of the Cuban people are non-negotiable.'

Fidel Castro stepped down from nearly 50 years as Cuba's leader in July 2006 due to illness, and formally ceded the helm to his brother Raul, 77, in February. He has been writing regularly in newspapers and online about a wide range of topics.

During the US election campaign, Mr Obama, a Democrat, said he would be willing to talk with Cuban leaders despite a 47-year US economic embargo on the communist island and outgoing Republican President George W. Bush's tough stance against Havana since 2001.

In a recent interview with American actor Sean Penn, Raul Castro said he was willing to meet Mr Obama in a 'neutral place ... and begin to solve our problems.' -- AFP