Havana ? As the White House prepares to announce another initiative for Cuba and the United Nations gets ready to discuss U.S.-Cuba relations, Fidel Castro on Tuesday accused President Bush of “threatening humanity with World War III, this time using atomic weapons.”

Bush had used the expression “World War III” last week when discussing how Iran’s nuclear program might upset global peace.

In a four-paragraph commentary in the communist government’s daily newspaper, Castro also charged Bush with aggravating the potential for worldwide famine.

The remarks came before Bush is expected to announce today strategies to encourage the international community to insist on free speech, free assembly and open, competitive elections for Cuba after Castro, now 81 and ill, dies someday, White House spokesmen said.

Castro called such an initiative “equivalent to a new conquest of Cuba by force.”

Next Tuesday, the United Nations will discuss Cuba’s proposed resolution condemning the U.S. trade embargo against its communist neighbor, a sanction that Cuban officials call a blockade.

“The danger of a massive world famine is aggravated by Mr. Bush’s recent initiative to transform foods into fuel while, calling on strategic security principles, he threatens humanity with World War III, this time using atomic weapons,” Castro wrote Tuesday.