As voting got under way Tuesday, Cuban-Americans in Florida began receiving robocalls telling them former Cuban president Fidel Castro supported Barack Obama and urging them to vote `right now` for John McCain, CNN said.

The pre-recorded phone messages, in Spanish, were frantically put together after Cuba`s official press published Castro`s latest comments on the US election, so they could go out before voting ends in Florida at 7:00 pm (0100 GMT Wednesday), CNN said.

`Go vote right now for (Republican) John McCain and stop Castro from getting what he wants,` said an excerpt of the robocall approved by the McCain campaign and aired by CNN.

Cuban exiles in Florida, up to now staunchly pro Republican, have been crucial in past elections, in particular in 2000 when George W. Bush won a highly controversial race against then vice president Al Gore.

At present, however, the community appears more divided with younger, US-born Cuban-Americans favoring Democrat Obama to be president.

In his commentary, Castro, 82, said Obama `is without a doubt more intelligent, cultured and composed than his Republican adversary` McCain, whom he called `old, bellicose, uneducated, not very intelligent and in poor health.`

Castro said he decided to publish his thoughts about the US election on voting day so it left no time for them to be used by either the Obama or McCain campaign.

The Republicans, however, appear to have managed to squeak the last-minute robocall bashing Obama.