Twenty years on, Castro salutes a fellow Caribbean legend

Kingston (Reuters) - Thousands of people paid their respects to the former Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley on Sunday, filling the main cathedral and spilling into the streets for the funeral of the legendary Caribbean leader.

Manley's flag-draped casket was carried on the shoulders of a military honour guard, preceded by 16 officiating clergymen and followed by dignitaries, including former Venez- uelan President Carlos Andres Perez, Haitian President Rene Preval and Cuban President Fidel Castro.

Mr Castro's arrival was greeted by roars from the crowd of "Fidel, Fidel" and a standing ovation from those inside the cathedral. He was last in Jamaica in 1977 at the height of Cuban-Jamaican co-operation.

Manley, the son of the architect of Jamaica's political independence Norman Manley, died of cancer at his home on 6 March. He was dub-bed "Joshua" in the 1970s because his father never served as prime minister after independence, thus leaving it to his son to lead Jamaica into the "promised land".

Tributes were read by Manley's successor, PJ Patterson.