China will not be intimidated by President George W. Bush's government in the diplomatic standoff over the collision of a US spy plane with a Chinese fighter, Cuban President Fidel Castro predicted on Thursday.

"If the gentlemen of the North decide to get on their high horses about this, have no doubt the Chinese will not let themselves be easily intimidated," Castro said in a two-hour speech to a world parliaments group in Havana.

If anyone thinks the Chinese are political pushovers, "that is a sign they do not know them," Castro said in a speech packed with criticisms of the Bush administration.

Castro is preparing to receive his Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin in Havana in a week's time toward the end of the Chinese president's Latin American tour.

Castro said the spy plane incident demonstrated how the United States was increasingly displaying "a Cold War mentality" and using "aggressive terminology" at the diplomatic level "in search of total hegemony."

"Any incident, of the many which occur all over the place, could create a really serious crisis, including wars which are unthinkable," he added.

(Agencies 04/06/2001)