Cuban exile activist Ramón Saúl Sánchez ended his hunger strike after the White House promised talks with exile leaders over the controversial ''wet-foot, dry-foot'' policy.

By OSCAR CORRAL

Cuban exile activist Ramón Saúl Sánchez ate strawberry gelatin and sipped potato broth not long after giving up his 12-day hunger strike Wednesday -- a day after the White House promised talks with exile leaders long upset by the U.S. ''wet-foot, dry-foot'' policy.

''It was the best gelatin and the best broth I've ever eaten,'' Sánchez said from his bed at Coral Gables Hospital where he was taken for tests after he ended his hunger strike.

Sánchez said that the White House statement given to The Miami Herald on Tuesday night -- coupled with a call Wednesday morning from a lawyer involved in the case of 15 repatriated migrants -- was enough to compel him to end the strike. The lawyer, William ''Willy'' Sánchez, told him the White House would make good on its promise, and said his own sources had confirmed the planning of a meeting.

''I feel very happy. I feel that a principle right of citizens to ask the government to be heard has been granted, and the first victory is the government's for having listened to us,'' Ramón Saúl Sánchez said.

A date has not yet been set for the meeting, however.

White House spokesman Blair Jones said Tuesday that the Bush administration would meet with exiles: ``The administration has reached out to representatives of the Cuban-American community to express our interest in hearing and understanding their concerns about U.S. migration policy.''

Sánchez started his hunger strike the weekend before the U.S. Coast Guard repatriated 15 Cubans on Jan. 9 who were found on pilings in a section of the old Flagler Bridge in the Florida Keys. The Coast Guard determined that because the inoperable bridge is not connected to land, the migrants were ''feet wet'' and should be taken back to Cuba.

On Tuesday, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who was in Miami, said that he and Auxiliary Bishop Agustín Román had been negotiating for several days to help broker a meeting in Washington between Bush administration officials and Cuban exile leaders to discuss the controversial policy, which was crafted by the Clinton administration in 1995 as thousands of Cubans took to the seas to reach the U.S.

Under the ''wet-foot, dry-foot'' policy, Cubans who reach U.S. soil are generally allowed to stay, while those stopped at sea are returned to the communist-ruled island unless they can demonstrate a fear of persecution.

Congressional leaders sent a letter to Bush administration officials last week asking for reform, which gives a good indication of the changes they will seek during talks with the administration.

They asked for an immediate review of how ''credible fear of persecution'' is determined by the Coast Guard; for legal counsel for all refugees picked up at sea, or their transfer to the U.S. military base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for immigration proceedings. They also are seeking that a percentage of the 20,000 visas allocated for Cubans every year be set aside for some refugees picked up at sea and that the U.S. Interest Section in Havana issue status reports on repatriated Cubans to determine if they are trying to migrate legally once returned to the communist island.