UNITED NATIONS -- (AP) -- Cuba is beginning a new legal campaign to fight the
 U.S. economic embargo, starting with a lawsuit against the U.S. government
 seeking more than $100 billion to compensate the Cuban people for their
 suffering.

 Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly, announced the
 campaign Tuesday, shortly before the U.N. General Assembly voted
 overwhelmingly for the eighth straight year to demand that the U.S. embargo be
 lifted immediately.

 U.S. Deputy Ambassador Peter Burleigh had urged U.N. member states to
 oppose the resolution, saying it might encourage Cuban authorities to persist in
 their denial of human rights and democracy for the Cuban people.

 Alarcon used the General Assembly debate to announce that Cuba will be suing
 the United States ``on account of the enormous damages caused to the people of
 Cuba by the blockade.''

 The full-fledged embargo began in early 1961, two years after Fidel Castro came
 to power.

 The lawsuit, he stressed, is just one part of the Cuban government's new legal
 campaign ``to fight the blockade and defend the rights of its people.''

 Asked afterward for details on where and when the suit would be filed and what
 other legal actions were planned, Alarcon said he didn't want to give the United
 States advance notice of Cuba's plans.

 ``No venue, no place should be excluded. All are available to us, and very soon
 we will learn what will be the very next step,'' he said. ``We will use all legal
 avenues.''

 Burleigh had no immediate comment on the lawsuit. U.S. officials said privately
 they would wait to see where the suit was filed before saying whether they will
 take it seriously or not.

 Last week, a Cuban court found the U.S. government liable for deaths and
 damage to the island nation during 40 years of ``aggressive policies'' and ordered
 the United States to pay about $181 billion in reparations.

 The U.S. government did not respond to a summons, and it was unlikely any
 damages would be paid because there are no American funds in Cuba that can
 be frozen and seized.

 The United States has consistently ignored the General Assembly's nonbinding
 resolutions condemning the embargo against Cuba. Alarcon said he was ``very
 satisfied'' that intense lobbying by the State Department had no impact on
 Tuesday's vote.

 A total of 155 of the assembly's 188 members voted for the resolution calling for
 the United States to repeal the embargo as soon as possible.

 Only two countries voted against -- the United States and Israel -- and there were
 eight abstentions.

 Last year, 157 countries voted in favor, 12 abstained and the United States and
 Israel opposed the resolution. Cuba would have gotten 157 votes this year, but for
 technical reasons the votes of St. Vincent and Cameroon were not counted.

 The resolution was supported by almost all of Washington's closest allies -- the
 European Union, Canada, Australia, South Korea and Japan, which urged the
 United States and Cuba to begin dialogue to resolve their differences.

 Speaker after speaker echoed Alarcon's dismay that the United States not only
 ignored the resolutions but had extended and strengthened provisions of the
 embargo.

 Burleigh stressed that the American people have been ``extremely generous'' in
 providing humanitarian assistance to Cuba. Alarcon countered that Cuba is now
 the only country to which the United States still bans the sale of food and
 medicine -- after Washington's recent lifting of similar bans on Iran, Libya, Sudan
 and North Korea.