HAVANA, Cuba (AFP) -- Cuban leader Fidel Castro announced yesterday that over 1,000 Latin American doctors, many of them trained on the communist island, would open "dozens" of field hospitals in quake-ravaged Haiti.

The doctors and students in the last year of their medical studies will serve medical care centres provided by Venezuela, he said.

"Venezuela has already provided tents, medical equipment, medicine and food, while the Haitian government has offered its full cooperation and support in this effort," Castro wrote in an article published in local newspapers.

"From all corners of the continent, we have heard from many colleagues who studied at ELAM (Latin American School of Medicine, founded in Cuba a decade ago) who wish to collaborate with them in this noble task.

Those volunteering will come from Haiti, the neighbouring Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Venezuela and other countries from the Americas, Castro said.

Cuba is one among many countries providing aid to Haiti, which is still reeling from a January 12 earthquake that killed more than 212,000 people and left more than one million homeless.

Havana has staffed five field hospitals in Haiti, and provided some 1,020 medical and paramedical staff.

Even the small-island nations of Dominica and Saint Lucia are supplying speakers of Creole, the predominant language in Haiti.

Bolivia, the poorest country in South America, sent 50 tonnes of rice and 500 litres (132 gallons) of blood five days after the tremor.

The joint effort by fellow leftist nations Cuba and Venezuela was open to other countries and institutions willing to participate, said Castro, 83.

The ailing revolutionary icon stepped down as president in 2006, turning over the government to his brother Raul Castro, 78.

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