The Bush administration continues to be worried that Fidel Castro's communist regime is developing biological weapons, according to U.S. Undersecretary of State for arms control and nuclear proliferation John Bolton.

Geostrategy-Direct, the global intelligence news service, reports while intelligence on the biological program is uneven, Bolton said last week "there is additional intelligence information that strengthens my belief that Cuba's BW effort must be carefully monitored."

Bolton said Ana Montes, a Cuban penetration agent inside the Defense Intelligence Agency, drafted a 1998 intelligence analysis that played down the threat from Cuba.

"Additionally, Montes' espionage materially strengthened Cuba's denial and deception efforts; the data Montes passed gave Havana ample opportunity to generate controlled information that could, via defectors and émigrés, reach Washington," he said.

Cuba's advanced biomedical infrastructure is likely to be used for weapons goals, just as civilian facilities in the Soviet Union were used for biological warfare research, Bolton said.

"I believe the case for the existence of a developmental Cuba BW R&D effort is strong," he said. "The administration believes that Cuba remains a serious terrorist and BW threat to the United States."