NEW YORK, Sept 9: Ten American journalists were paid off by the Bush administration to provide anti-Castro commentaries to be broadcast over US television stations, a spokesman for the office responsible for Cuba broadcasts told the New York Times on Friday.

The group included three journalists at El Nuevo Herald, which fired them on Thursday after learning of the relationship. Pablo Alfonso, who reports on Cuba for El Nuevo Herald, received the largest payment — $175,000 since 2001.

While the Castro government has long alleged that some reporters in Miami were paid by the government, the revelation on Friday, reported in The Miami Herald, was the first evidence.

The daily also revealed when a reporter followed Mr Castro to Argentina this summer and asked him why Cuba was not letting one of its dissidents leave the country, Mr Castro called him a ‘mercenary and asked who was paying him.