MIAMI -- Juanita Castro began cooperating with the CIA in 1961, according to a new book she has written, but only in operations that did not involve attempts to assassinate brothers Fidel and Raul or any loss of Cuban lives.

"Fidel and Raul, My Brothers -- The Secret History," released yesterday, identifies her CIA contact as Tony Sforza, one of the spy agency's Cuba experts and a member of the post-Bay of Pigs U.S. campaign against the Castro government known as Operation Mongoose. He had been in Cuba, passing himself off as a gambler named Frank Stevens.

Under the code name Donna, her first task after her recruitment in Mexico City was to return to Havana with food cans containing messages and money for the CIA's contacts on the island, according to the book.

It also claimed that Ms. Castro passed information to the U.S. spies that Soviet missiles were being installed on the island, and that each day more and more Russians were being seen on the island. The Cuban missile crisis exploded in October 1962.

Ms. Castro spoke about her cooperation with the CIA in an interview with Maria Antonieta Collins -- who co-authored the book -- broadcast Sunday by the Univision-Noticias 23 television channel in Miami. The program said more details would be revealed in further broadcasts this week.

Juanita Castro left the island in 1964, after her brother Raul told her that Cuba's domestic security agencies had opened a file on her because of her counter-revolutionary activities, according to the book. Raul Castro approved her exit permit.

Juanita Castro publicly denounced the revolution and settled in Miami.

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