Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, August 28, 1994                   TAG: 9408300033
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Boston Globe
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

U.S. WILL TALK WITH CUBA

Cuba has demanded to discuss ending the U.S. economic embargo against it.

The Clinton administration instead sought to reassure the conservative Cuban-American exile community that it will not allow Cuba to use the immigration talks as a wedge to begin substantive political negotiations.

``The talks will deal with ... the promotion of legal, orderly and safe migration,'' said a statement released by the State Department. It described the talks as ``a continuation of discussions'' on immigration that have been held periodically since 1984.

``Our interest is in saving lives of Cubans, and we have no basis for any other dialogue at present. We are making it clear to the Cuban-American community that we intend to remain focused on immigration issues,'' said Michael McCurry, the State Department spokesman.

In the past week, a variety of influential Americans has urged the administration to use the refugee flood as an opportunity to press Fidel Castro to move toward democracy in exchange for certain carrots, such as easing restrictions on shipping humanitarian aid to Cuba.

More than 16,000 Cuban boat people have been rescued since Aug.1, averaging more than 2,000 a day in the past week. But the weekend's stormy weather in the Straits of Florida reduced the flow to a trickle, and fewer than 100 rafters were intercepted Saturday.

On Friday, the Cuba Task Force of the Inter-American Dialogue, a policy institute, called on the administration to ``take immediate steps to defuse the present crisis'' by beginning broad talks with Havana that would ``negotiate a new relationship.''

Declaring that the 35-year U.S. embargo has failed to lead to political reform in Cuba, the group also asked the White House to reverse its decision last week to curtail flights and family cash gifts to the island, arguing that this would only punish ordinary Cubans and give them further incentive to flee illegally.

``The current policy is ideally designed to reach the goals the United States least wants,'' said Jorge Dominguez, a Harvard University professor and member of the institute. ``A U.S. policy based on the premise that Castro is about to fall is seriously misguided.''