Sunday February 18 1:11 PM ET
U.S. Policy Experts Encouraged by Talks in Cuba

By Pascal Fletcher

HAVANA (Reuters) - American foreign policy experts who produced a report recommending closer U.S.-Cuban ties said on Sunday they were encouraged by the Cuban government's private response to the proposals despite an initial public rejection.

The report drawn up by a task force sponsored by the nonpartisan U.S. Council on Foreign Relations was originally released in late November and Cuban President Fidel Castro (news - web sites)'s government was quick to criticize it heavily in public.

The document, initially dismissed by Havana as ``nothing new,'' proposed steps to promote improved U.S.-Cuban relations, including freer travel by Americans to the communist-ruled island, military contacts and limited U.S. trade activity.

Members of a high-level Council on Foreign Relations delegation led by former banker David Rockefeller held a 5-1/2-hour meeting on Saturday night with Castro and other Cuban leaders at the end of a four-day visit to the Caribbean island.

They told a news conference in Havana on Sunday they discussed the task force report and the public Cuban criticism of it.

Asked if the private official Cuban response to the report's suggestions was encouraging, one of its authors, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Bill Rogers, replied emphatically, ``Oh, I think so''.

But he declined to give specific details.

``Frank Exchanges'' Seen As Positive

Another Council member, Walter Russell Mead, said he also considered the talks in Havana positive.

``I think the kind of very frank exchanges that we had ... show that it is possible for people from both countries to move toward an understanding,'' Mead said.

The report by the Council-sponsored task force proposed practical steps, short of lifting the 38-year-old U.S. embargo against Cuba or re-establishing full diplomatic ties, to help prepare for a ``peaceful, democratic transition'' after Castro.

In December, Cuban state television commentators and journalists extensively attacked the report in successive television broadcasts as ``perfidious,'' hypocritical and arrogant.

Its recommendations included increased U.S. cooperation with Cuba against drug trafficking and a more flexible U.S. immigration policy to make contacts and visits easier for Cuban families divided across the Florida Straits.

The report also recommended allowing U.S. companies that had property expropriated after Cuba's 1959 Revolution to negotiate settlements with Havana, including the possibility of equity participation in joint ventures on the island.

Delegation sources said the discussions in Havana indicated that the Cuban government's real attitude to the report was much more positive than the hostile public rhetoric suggested.

They added Havana would probably not oppose some of the recommendations, for example for increased ``people-to-people'' contacts between the two countries, which have not had formal diplomatic ties for four decades.

``Everything I heard on the Cuban side indicated that this is seen as constructive,'' one source said.

Cuban Education, Health Praised

Council on Foreign Relations Chairman Peter Peterson described the delegation's long meeting with Castro as ``very interesting, quite extraordinary''. ``He struck us as having an almost computer-like knowledge,'' he said.

Peterson also praised what he said was the Cuban leadership's passionate commitment to providing high education and health standards for its people.

``I suspect that Cuba is among the best educated countries in the entire hemisphere,'' he added.

Rockefeller, the Council's honorary chairman, said the last time he visited Cuba was before the 1959 Revolution led by Castro that toppled right-wing dictator Fulgencio Batista.

``A lot has happened over the last 42 years ... it's a great pleasure for me to be here again,'' he said