TAMPA, Fla. (Reuters) - President Bush accused Cuba's Fidel Castro on Friday of welcoming sex tourism and contributing to a global problem of human trafficking, as he courted Cuban-American voters in Florida, a pivotal state in November's election.

"The regime of Fidel Castro has turned Cuba into a major destination for sex tourism," Bush told a conference on human trafficking. Bush added that the Cuban president "welcomes sex tourism" as a source of hard currency for his government.

Bush quoted Castro as saying that prostitutes in Havana were the cleanest and best educated in the world. He said that was evidence that Havana was encouraging sex tourism.

Castro praised Cuban prostitutes for having college educations in a documentary interview by the U.S. filmmaker, Oliver Stone.

Cuba's government, born of a revolution against a corrupt U.S.-backed dictatorship that allowed Mafia-run gaming and prostitution to thrive in Havana in the 1950's, strongly denies tolerating sex tourism.

The Department of Justice-organized conference was aimed at promoting the administration's efforts to crack down on trafficking of people across borders for forced labor such as prostitution and sweatshop work. The issue is an important one for Christian conservatives, who are core Bush supporters nationwide.

Coal and Guns

But by singling out Cuba, Bush underscored a get-tough approach toward Castro that has included other rhetorical salvos as well as tightening of a trade embargo.

Later, at a campaign rally in Beckley, West Virginia, Bush shifted his focus to his Democratic challenger John Kerry as he raised two issues important to West Virginians -- coal and guns.

Bush accused the Massachusetts senator of having labeled coal a "dirty energy source" and of having supported legislation that would cost jobs in the industry.

He also charged that Kerry has voted "against the rights of law-abiding gun owners."

The Kerry campaign shot back by emphasizing Kerry's lifelong love of hunting. Campaign spokesman Phil Singer said the senator believes in the right to bear arms under the second amendment "but he also believes in enforcing current laws."

Singer said Bush "has no credibility" on coal. He accused the president of short-changing a pledge he made in 2000 to invest $2 billion in clean coal initiatives.

While in Florida, Bush visited a Cuban restaurant, La Tropicana, where he and his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, bought sandwiches and posed for pictures with the restaurant owners.

FLORIDA "NOBODY'S STATE"

Gathering as many votes as possible among Florida's 800,000 generally staunchly anti-Castro Cuban-Americans is considered essential if Bush is to take the state in November.

A new Zogby poll of Florida voters showed John Kerry eking out a small lead against Bush, giving Bush 44 percent support to his Democratic challenger's 47 percent.

Pollster John Zogby said Kerry was benefiting from the attention given his recent pick of North Carolina Sen. John Edwards as his running mate but said Florida will continue to be a tight race. "It's nobody's state," Zogby said.

Florida was the site of the 36-day ballot recount saga in 2000. Bush was declared the winner of the state -- and thus of the general election -- by 537 votes after the intervention of the Supreme Court.

While West Virginia is much smaller than Florida, it too has received a heavy focus in this campaign. Bush's win in the state in 2000 was a source of pride for him, given the state's history of favoring Democrats.