Cuba's first gay pride parade was abruptly cancelled yesterday, moments before it was to begin.

The unofficial march, organised with Florida's Unity Coalition, was not sanctioned by Cuba's National Centre for Sex Education, which is headed by Mariela Castro, the daughter of President Raul Castro.

Activist Mario Jose Delgado said two organisers who were to deliver a set of demands to the Justice Ministry were detained on Tuesday.

"The president of the Cuban League Against Aids and the president of the Foundation LGTB Reinaldo Arenas in Memoriam have been arrested," Delgado said.

"They were to be here with our written demands but now we cannot carry out our activity."

Delgado said he had no details of the arrests.

Only one other marcher appeared for the event at Don Quixote park in the Vedado neighbourhood.

"Our society needs to be sensitised," said Jandri Penton, 22, a teacher.

But a passer-by, Felix Lopez, 40, a personal trainer who said he was gay, dismissed the gay pride march as unnecessary.

"Important strides have been made," he said. "We don't need to be instructed by people in Miami or any other part of the world. We're slowly gaining a space in our society and that's important."

The activists were seeking an apology from the government for its past repression and, in some cases, incarceration of openly gay citizens, and the inhumane treatment of prisoners with Aids, according to Unity.

"Despite a so-called opening in the area of gay rights ... homosexuals are still being arrested and fined in Villa Clara and ... beaten in Granma, Pinar del Rio and Santiago," Delgado said. "We know change is coming, but it's coming too slowly."

Delgado identified one of the jailed organisers as Aliomar Janjaque, 31, a psychology student and president of the Foundation LGTB Reinaldo Arenas in Memoriam.

In an interview last week, Janjaque said homosexuals are still passed over for jobs, prevented from gathering in certain places and, in some cases, jailed because of their sexual orientation.

"Mariela Castro's work is good and valid and we're not criticising it," said Janjaque last week. "But we believe they should do more."

In May, Mariela Castro led a public rally against homophobia that briefly brought gay activists out of the shadows. Earlier this month, Cuban officials announced they were allowing free sex-change operations.

At Cuba's National Centre for Sex Education, Mariela Castro's secretary, who gave her name only as Iliana, said there would be no comment on the event.

Gay activists in southern Florida condemned the arrests and proceeded with a community rally at Club Azucar in Miami yesterday afternoon to show support for Cuba's gays.

"It proves there is no true openness toward the gay community in Cuba," said Efren Martinez Pulgaron of Unity Coalition, a former independent journalist who fled Cuba nine years ago.

He said Mariela Castro's May rally and the government's recent decision to allow sex-change operations were token gestures.

"Raul Castro's administration is simply trying to project a better image of itself. But the truth is the gay community is still threatened and repressed."