HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) -- In an apparently unprecedented move during
                 President Fidel Castro's 43-year rule, a group of dissidents says it has
                 gathered 10,000 signatures to ask the Cuban parliament for a referendum on
                 political reforms.

                 "We are proposing a consultation with the people so they decide about change," a
                 leading moderate dissident, Oswaldo Paya, who is the main promoter of the
                 so-called Varela Project, told Reuters late on Wednesday.

                 The project, named for pro-independence Catholic priest Felix Varela (1788-1853),
                 is based on article 88 of the Cuban constitution, which says new legislation may be
                 proposed by citizens if more than 10,000 voters support them.

                 The proposed referendum, Paya said, would be on the need to guarantee the rights
                 of free expression and association; an amnesty for political prisoners; more
                 opportunities for private business; a new electoral law; and a general election.

                 Havana, which scorns dissidents as "counter-revolutionary" pawns of a hostile U.S.
                 government and anti-Castro Cuban American groups, has publicly ignored the
                 project.

                 But Paya and others behind the campaign accused the government of mounting a
                 strong campaign of "threats and persecution" to impede the gathering of signatures
                 and delivery of letters to authorities.

                 "Authorities are acting like gangsters," said Paya, who has a long list of alleged
                 verbal and physical abuse against Varela Project activists in the last year.

                 'Government afraid'

                 "The government is afraid of this liberating gesture, where a social vanguard is
                 showing it has no fear. The government is afraid when the people are not afraid,"
                 he added.

                 Castro frequently says his one-party communist system is more democratic than
                 the Western model and denies the existence of political prisoners or repression of
                 freedom of expression.

                 The signatures, gathered by activists across the Caribbean island of 11 million
                 inhabitants over the last year, will be presented to the National Assembly in a few
                 weeks, once all 10,000 signatures have been checked and ratified, Paya said.

                 "This has never been done before, it has no precedent," he added. "It shows
                 Cubans not only want changes, but also are ready to face the risks to show they
                 want changes."

                 According to Paya, more than 100 small opposition groups have backed the
                 initiative. However, some prominent dissidents, such as Martha Beatriz Roque, do
                 not support it, arguing it is unrealistic to seek change within a constitution designed
                 by the Castro government.

                 Paya did not say what Varela Project backers will do if the initiative is rejected by
                 the National Assembly, something analysts and diplomats think is virtually certain.

                 "We are ready to keep demanding our rights," he said.

                 Over the four decades since the 1959 revolution, Cuba's scattered and marginalized
                 internal dissident movement has made little headway against Castro's grip on
                 power.

                 Castro again scathingly lambasted dissidents this week, in a three-hour TV speech,
                 as nonrepresentative of the Cuban people and intent on helping Washington bring
                 Cuba into the U.S. "empire."

                    Copyright 2002 Reuters.