The wife of the acting Cuba's President Raul Castro Vilma Espin Guillois died Monday at the age of 77 after a long illness.

Espin's disease of was not disclosed but she was said to suffer from severe circulatory problems in recent years.

There was declared an official mourning period from 8 p.m. on Monday until 10 p.m. on Tuesday. The Cuban flag will be lowered to half-mast at all public buildings and military bases during that period.

Espin's body was cremated and her ashes will be scattered during a private ceremony, with full military honours, which is to be held in her home city of Santiago de Cuba.

As Raul Castro's wife, Espin was Cuba's de facto first lady for decades because Cuban leader Fidel Castro was divorced.

She was called "one of the most relevant fighters for women's emancipation" and was one of the communist nation's most politically powerful women in the world.

Espin was president of the Federation of Cuban Women, which she founded in 1960 for more than four decades.

Both as a Castro family member and a leader in her own right, Espin assumed her first lady duties shortly after the revolutionary triumph.

Her marriage with Raul Castro lasted 42 years. The couple has four children.

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