By Stephen Gibbs BBC News, Havana

Fidel Castro wants to reward people like doctors

Cuba has announced a major increase in government salaries as it tries to reward workers with high productivity and advanced university degrees.

The bonuses will boost some government salaries by up to 50%.

Cuba's Communist Party daily newspaper says that the pay rises will be the first some civil servants have been awarded in 23 years.

Workers with masters degrees will receive a bonus of up to $4 a month. Doctors will get an extra $7.

The raw figures might seem low but in Cuba - where the average monthly salary is around $15, and accommodation healthcare and education are free, the rises will be welcome. Perhaps all the more so because they come at the same time the Cuban government is launching a campaign against those that supplement their salaries through illicit means.

Rich targeted

President Castro has vowed to clamp down hard on rampant robbery from state enterprises.

In a speech last week he also blamed many of the country's woes on what he described as Cuba's new rich - principally intermediaries and independent restaurant owners who have profited from this economy's very limited opening up to private enterprise.

They, it appears, are being targeted in another move announced - a staggered price rise of up to three times for heavy consumers of electricity.

Cuba's decrepit electrical infrastructure has in recent years proved insufficient to power the whole country.