MIAMI (AFP) - Former Republican cabinet member Mel Martinez was set to become the first Cuban-American in the US Senate, after his Democratic rival, Betty Castor, a former top state education official, conceded defeat.

Castor, who trailed Martinez by just about one percentage point, initially rejected Martinez's claim to victory but eventually conceded, local television reported.

Martinez, 58, who came to the United States at the age of 15 as part of a church operation to help children leave communist Cuba, had spent much time campaigning with President George W. Bush, who also won Florida.

The race to replace retiring Democratic Senator Bob Graham had been marked by bitter personal attacks on issues such as the Iraq (news - web sites) war, terrorism and taxes.

"If Betty Castor had her way, Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) would still be butchering the people of Iraq," Martinez, Bush's former secretary of housing and urban development (HUD), said at a recent rally.

One of his campaign ads accused Castor of being soft on terror for allowing a man investigated for terrorism links to teach at the University of South Florida while she was president there.

Castor, 63, fought back with a picture of Martinez next to one that showed Bush together with the suspect during the 2000 presidential campaign.

Sami Al-Arian has since been indicted for allegedly helping to raise funds for the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad.

The Democratic candidate linked her rival's three-year stint as a cabinet member with lucrative private-sector jobs he later received from companies that may have benefited from regulatory decisions he made while in government.

"I think he benefited in a private capacity from his services at HUD," Castor told reporters.

The Martinez campaign dismissed the claim as "playground insults."