About 107 Cuban doctors arrived here on Monday to help improve the health care delivery in Zimbabwe's rural and district hospitals, the Herald newspaper reported on March 21.

The volunteer doctors, who have brought with them 1.3 tons of drugs to bail out three districts reeling under the effects of Cyclone Eline, will be on a two-year contract.

They will undergo a few weeks of orientation in Harare and Bulawayo before taking up their posts at various hospitals, the report said.

According to Cuban Ambassador to Zimbabwe Rodolfo Sarracino, the doctors are volunteers on full salary in Cuba and what Zimbabwe needs to do is only to give them accommodation and monthly allowances.

Another group of 23 doctors is also expected to arrive by the end of this month, Sarracino said.

He said these doctors were recruited following Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's visit to Cuba last September.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwean Health Minister Timothy Stamps spoke highly of the doctors, saying their vast experience is of great value to the country.

We hope by the time their contracts expire we will have produced enough of our own," he said.