MIAMI -- Cuba's economy is in disastrous shape and relies almost entirely on cash transactions, raising the risk the country could become a humanitarian emergency, bankers and economists said Thursday.

"It's pretty much a cash economy," said Dennis Flannery, vice-president of the Inter-American Development Bank. Asked whether communist-run Cuba risked running out of cash, he told journalists "it could, and then it would become a humanitarian case like African countries."

Flannery made the comments on the sidelines of a conference on the Cuban economy that opened in Miami Thursday.

He told participants that Cuba's foreign debt has reached a record high and that rating agencies classified the Caribbean island as one of the riskiest economies in the world, alongside countries such as Iraq or Angola, AFP reported..

Citing U.S. State Department figures, Flannery said Cuba's foreign debt amounted to 12.2 billion dollars in addition to about 20 billion dollars owed Russia and 6.3 billion dollars in expropriation claims from US citizens.

"Cuba is experiencing its worst crisis in decades," said Beatriz Casals, president of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy, which organized the conference.

Adolfo Franco, assistant administrator of the US Agency for International Development, pointed out that the Cuban economy was further weakened by its worst sugar cane harvest in seven decades.

The speakers concurred that significant economic change was only possible if Cuba adopted wide-ranging democratic reforms, and that development credits would only be forthcoming once Cuba settles its foreign debts.