Passport-holding Cubans now living elsewhere will not need visas to visit their homeland after June 1, the government says.

HAVANA - (AP) -- Most Cuban-born people living outside the island can visit the country of their birth without a visa starting June 1 if they have a valid Cuban passport, the communist government confirmed Thursday.

The Cuban Foreign Ministry announced the upcoming change last fall but did not say exactly when it would take effect. Lazaro Hernández, spokesman for the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, told The Associated Press the change would occur June 1.

Starting then, ''Cuban citizens living in other countries will be able to enter Cuba with their valid passport,'' Hernández wrote in an e-mail to The AP's Washington bureau. The government considers all people born on the island Cuban citizens, even if they have taken citizenship in another country.

The change could affect hundreds of thousands of Cuban-born people living abroad. Now, most must obtain a separate Cuban visa to visit the island of their birth.

The proposed change was announced in September by Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque at a meeting with 300 Cuban-Americans in New York.

RENEWED HOSTILITIES

The Foreign Ministry in Havana later issued a statement saying the decision was made despite ``the renewed hostilities, the campaigns of lies, the blockade, the aggressive statements and terrorist action plans by the extreme right of Miami against Cuba.''

''This decision constitutes a new signal of goodwill by the revolutionary government, which is directed to keep facilitating . . . contacts between Cubans who live abroad with their relatives living in Cuba,'' the statement read.

Some Cuban natives could be excluded from the new measures ''in cases of exceptional, repugnant or damaging activity against the country's interests,'' it added.

The new measure will take affect a few days after a major immigration conference with overseas Cubans May 27-29 in Havana.

The acceptance of passports held by Cubans living abroad is welcome news to some exiles -- or at least those who are willing to travel to the island -- who have bristled at the thought of needing a visa to enter their homeland.

''You no longer have that contradiction,'' said Francisco Aruca, board chairman of Marazul charters, which is licensed by the U.S. Treasury Department to fly to Cuba. ``It's a step toward normalizing travel for Cubans who want to travel to see their relatives.''

3 FLIGHTS WEEKLY

Aruca, whose company charters three flights a week out of Miami and one out of New York, said the June date comes just in time for the busy travel months. ''The summer months are the second-highest season, next to December,'' he said, adding that he hopes word spreads that passports will not be processed for verification before April 1.

''That is very important. Because people will go crazy, sending their passports to the Cuban Interest Section or agencies like ours,'' he said.

Herald staff writer Tere Figueras contributed to this report.