HAVANA (Reuters) -- Cuban security services have temporarily arrested
                  136 dissidents so far this month to prevent planned protests against
                  President Fidel Castro's government, a rights' group said Friday.

                  Of those, the majority were released after short periods of up to several
                  days in jail, but at least 10 were still in prison on Christmas Eve, according
                  to the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation.

                  "These are the highest numbers in years, and this tendency is going to
                  continue in coming times," said commission president Elizardo Sanchez,
                  himself one of Cuba's best-known dissidents. Sanchez's group is an
                  unauthorized human rights monitoring body that the government refuses to
                  recognize.

                  There was no official confirmation of the arrests.

                  Most of the detentions apparently were intended to prevent activities
                  planned by Cuban dissidents around the 51st anniversary of the adoption of
                  the Universal Declaration of Human Rights earlier this month.

                  But there were also further arrests this week to prevent a planned silent
                  demonstration at Havana Cathedral during Christmas celebrations, dissident
                  sources added. Some were also picked up chained together at a recent
                  religious pilgrimage.

                  The Cuban government claims all dissidents are U.S.-backed
                  counter-revolutionaries, "mercenaries" and "traitors." Opposition political
                  groups are outlawed by Castro's one-party political system.

                  Sanchez said the increased number of arrests was related to more activity
                  from dissidents and the government's preferred tactic of preventative and
                  temporary action.

                  "The popular discontent is rising, and it is logical that demonstrations of
                  discontent rise.... There are hundreds and hundreds of militant opponents,
                  and many of them try to express their disagreement in various ways," he
                  said. "The government reacts with low-profile and low-intensity acts of
                  repression."