BY AMBAR HERNANDEZ
Special To The Herald

A videoconference celebrated as a first has linked Cubans in Miami and Havana for a discussion on a new book on the island's post-Castro economy.

The University of Miami's Institute of Cuban and Cuban American Studies arranged the teleconference Thursday with Kelly Keiderling, a public affairs officer at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana.

''It's a pleasure to be part of this collaboration, that for the first time is possible,'' said Martha Beatriz Roque, a leading Cuban dissident.

Keiderling invited about 50 Cubans to her home in Havana to take part in the videoconference with a Miami panel on the new book by Jorge Sanguinetty, a Miami economist who headed Cuba's National Investment Planning Department from 1963 to 1966. He has also advised former Soviet-bloc nations on economic reforms.

His Spanish-language book, Cuba, Reality and Destiny, predicts a bright future for Cuba after leader Fidel Castro's death -- if the island's new rulers understand the social and other problems that have plagued other post-communist nations.

Sanguinetty said his book does not contain economic jargon or numbers and instead aims to raise awareness among Cubans about the problems that will arise during a transition period as communism begins to erode on the island.

Some of the Havana participants said they were thrilled not only to take part in the videoconference but to openly discuss the book with others in Miami. The book is not commercially available in Cuba, but Keiderling handed out copies to the audience at her home.

''Cubans get excited when they know that their problems are being studied by people in Miami,'' said Havana dissident René Gómez Manzano.