Dennis lashed Haiti on Thursday and went on to sweep across Cuba and on Sunday hit the southern United States, where another five people were killed. One man was also killed in Jamaica.

The degree of destruction in Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas, only became known on Tuesday, when the civil protection agency said 40 people had been confirmed dead, with at least 16 missing after the storm.

Dennis was the first hurricane of the season in the Atlantic but brought immediate devastation.

Haitian civil protection agency spokesman Jeffe Delorges said 23 bodies had been found in the southwestern town of Grand-Goave. Most were killed when a bridge collapsed.

Another 10 were killed in the Grande-Anse region, also in the southwest, along with five in the southeast and two in the southern city of Cayes.

The agency estimates that about 15,000 people are without homes or means to feed themselves, with hundreds of houses completely destroyed. It said there had been widespread flooding and damage to plantations.

The Haitian government announced emergency aid totaling the equivalent of 30,000 dollars.

Cuban President Fidel Castro said in a televised address late Monday that the toll from Dennis had climbed to 16 from 11 on the island.

"We have to talk about the saddest of things," Castro said in his six-hour speech. "A total of 16 people were killed."

Castro, 78, also said that Dennis, which hammered Cuba on Thursday and Friday with winds of up to 240 kilometers (150 miles) an hour, destroyed or damaged 120,000 homes and caused more than 1.4 billion dollars in damage.

Castro also read from a lengthy list of agricultural devastation: "The entire crop of citrus fruits was lost -- 200,000 tonnes of grapefruit fell from the trees, as did 160,000 tonnes of oranges. At hundreds of dollars per tonne, that's a huge loss for our exports."

Castro turned down all help offered to Cuba by the United States or the European Union in the wake of Hurricane Dennis.

"Because of this terrible hurricane, there are some who have mentioned humanitarian assistance," Castro said.

"There's a neighbor who offered a little help, I think it was 50,000 dollars. ... Let them know that we'll never accept help. If they offered us one billion (dollars), we'd tell them 'no.'

"Let them lift instead this genocidal blockade against our country," Castro said, referring to the US economic embargo imposed on Cuba more than 40 years ago, after Castro imposed a communist government on the island.

Regarding the EU, Castro said: "Let me warn the Europeans ahead of time that we will not accept any humanitarian assistance.

"Let them save their money. Don't anybody offer anything, the whole of Europe. We'll tell you flat out 'no,'" Castro said, renewing his criticism of European sanctions imposed after a crackdown on dissidents in 2003.

Storm-weary residents of the US Gulf of Mexico coast pursued their cleanup after their latest battering.

Thousands of people who had evacuated the area returned to gas shortages, rotting food, sweltering heat and badly damaged buildings.

Trees, fallen branches and chunks of roofing and signage littered the streets and authorities said it would be days -- or even weeks -- until power was fully restored.

Caravans of police and national guardsmen escorted utility trucks through the most damaged areas, while otherwise quiet suburbs buzzed with the sounds of chainsaws and gas-powered generators.

Long lines formed at the few hardware stores which had managed to reopen, and many had to drive miles for food, ice and gasoline.

Dennis, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season, is estimated to have caused one billion to five billion dollars in insured losses in the United States, according to Risk Management Solutions.

Meanwhile, the US National Hurricane Center in Miami said a new storm, Tropical Storm Emily, was strengthening and hurricane watches were issued in the Windward Islands.

At 1500 GMT, hurricane watches had been issued for Barbados, Grenada, the Grenadines, St. Vincent and St. Lucia by the appropriate governments, the center said. A hurricane watch means hurricane conditions are possible in the watch area within 36 hours.

"Emily has the potential to become a hurricane before reaching the Windward

Islands," the US center said.

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