Cuba says it does not anticipate that the US will lift the trade embargo

It's the fifteenth time that the UN has approved such a resolution.

One-hundred-and-eighty-three countries - including all Caribbean nations - voted in favour of it.

Joining the United States in voting against the resolution were Israel, Marshall Islands and Palau, while Micronesia abstained.

Cuba's Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque told the General Assembly, "the economic war unleashed by the U.S. against Cuba qualifies as an act of genocide and constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations."

Those against

As it has in past years, Cuba campaigned widely against the embargo, and speaker after speaker in the General Assembly debate opposed the U.S. sanctions imposed after Fidel Castro defeated the CIA-backed assault at the Bay of Pigs in 1961.

South Africa which spoke on behalf of the Group of 77 which represents 132 mainly developing countries and China, said its members oppose the US embargo because of its impact on every day life of the Cuban people.

It said the embargo violated of the principle of non-interference in the affairs of another country.

Those in favour

But the U.S. countered that and said the Cuban government has systematically denied the human, economic, labour and political rights of its people over 47 years.

The embargo has been steadily tightened under the George Bush administration.