BY ANDREA ELLIOTT AND ELAINE DE VALLE

In a bid to participate in Cuba's political future, exile leader Jorge Mas Santos this week offered to discuss a democratic transition on the island with any of three specific Cuban government officials, eliciting mixed but emotional reactions from Cuban Americans.

  Though Mas Santos excluded Fidel and Raul Castro from the list and has not made an official move to open a dialogue, it was the first time the Cuban American National Foundation chairman has publicly named Cuban officials with whom he is willing to talk -- a very public signal that Cuban exiles are staking a claim in a future political transition.

  ''They are clearly trying to position themselves to be a negotiating force with a future government in Cuba and sending the message that there are people in exile willing to sit down and talk with them,'' said Jaime Suchlicki, director of the University of Miami Institute of Cuban and Cuban-American Studies.

  The comments first appeared Sunday in the Mexican newspaper Reforma, jolting people across South Florida and parts of Cuba. Exiles blasted Mas Santos on radio shows while Cuban opposition leaders from Havana telephoned the foundation with praise, according to CANF.

  Mas Santos -- the son of Jorge Mas Canosa, CANF's founder -- said he was ready to sit down and talk to Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage, National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon or Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque.

  ''They're the face of the regime now,'' Mas Santos said in a telephone interview. ``The fact that we have named these individuals is for them to know that in a change
  toward a democratic and free Cuba, they also have a place.''

  Under no terms, however, will CANF talk to Fidel or Raul Castro, he said.

  ''Everyone else in Cuba in my view is a victim of the Castro regime, even those people who are part of the regime,'' Mas Santos said. ``There is a place for all those
  people in the reconstruction of Cuba as a democratic system. We cannot exclude anyone. That is the true exercise of a democracy.''

  VOCAL DISSENT

  Other Cuban exile leaders loudly dissented with Mas Santos, saying his comments show further softening of CANF's original hard-line attitude.

  Already, the moderating of the organization's stance caused a splinter group of about 20 directors and prominent members to leave and form their own exile lobby -- the Cuban Liberty Council -- two years ago.

  ''There are questions of principles and it is the reason, precisely, why we separated from the foundation,'' said Luis Zuñiga, executive director of the Cuban Liberty Council. ``The position of the foundation was no dialogue with the regime. And those he mentions -- Alarcon, Lage -- are part of the regime. They are extensions of Fidel Castro.''

  Although Mas Canosa was known to vehemently oppose dialogue with the regime -- calling any such effort a trap set by Castro -- he did once reach out to one of the
  people his son mentioned, according to published reports at the time.

  He reportedly urged Lage in 1993 to cooperate with the opposition on the island and in exile and reminded him that Cuban exiles would like to see a peaceful transition on the island when Fidel Castro leaves office, according to the original report in The Washington Times.

  Since Mas Canosa died in 1997 and Mas Santos took the helm, he has come under fire from hard-liners and ultra-right exiles critical of his efforts to lure the Latin
  Grammys to Miami and the foundation's focus on aiding dissidents on the island.

  They also took issue with his organizational changes and expenditures after he hired Dennis Hays, a retired U.S. diplomat who once served on the State Department Cuba Desk, to head the Washington, D.C., office and bought a $1.8 million town house to serve as its office in the capital.

  MORE CRITICISM

  Another Cuban exile criticized for opening a dialogue with Cuban officials, Bernardo Benes said he does not understand Mas Santos' position. Benes, who has made more than 70 trips to Cuba since the late 1970s, has met repeatedly with Fidel Castro.

  ''You cannot be a little pregnant. To put conditions on who you are going to talk to -- I don't know. It doesn't make sense to me,'' said Benes. ``I am happy I have
  someone in the same boat as I was in 1978 but I really don't understand the fact that he said he's not going to talk to the Castro brothers when they are the political
  leaders of the country for over 44 years.''

  Some questioned the timing of Mas Santos' comments.

  ''Why now? Nobody in the Cuban government has signaled that they are willing to negotiate,'' said Suchlicki. ``Fidel is still there. This is something for the future. I don't
  think this is something that can be done now.''

  NOT TIME TO WAIT

  But Joe Garcia, CANF's spokesman, called the comments an invitation to the Cuban government officials and said there was no time to wait.

  He said that while Alarcon and Lage may not be the ones to respond, the comments made in Reforma -- which he said is widely read by the Communist Party hierarchy -- may cause other Cuban government officials to consider communications.

  'What we have to do is make sure we don't block the process. The one who says `no' is Fidel Castro,'' Garcia said. ``The one who is fighting a peaceful transition in Cuba is Fidel Castro, not us.''

  Some Cuban Americans strongly oppose talking to Cuban officials.

  ''Those are agents of the regime,'' said Jose Emilio Pedroso, 59, as he shook his head. ``They are criminals and assassins and because of them there have been
  thousands of deaths in the Florida Straits.''

  Standing in the shade of a Royal Poinciana tree near the Cuban patriots memorial on West Flagler Street, Jose Hernandez, 61, agreed. ``No way! So they can stay? The ones that are next to him? It would be the same thing.''

  A WELCOME CHANGE

  But some younger Cubans welcomed the change in strategy.

  ''Nothing else has worked against Fidel for more than 40 years,'' said Yuri Vidal, 23, a biology student at Florida International University who was 10 when he came to
  Miami from Cuba.

  ``Maybe if they start talking, something will happen.''

  José Vasquez, a welder who came in the Mariel boatlift, said he wasn't moved by any efforts on the part of exile leaders.

  ''These people should just forget about Cuba already. Let them worry about things in this country, lowering taxes and the cost of living,'' said Vasquez, 36.

  ``Fidel is just laughing at them.''