By Anita Snow, Associated Press

 HAVANA - Cuba defended its speedy prosecution of 75 dissidents, saying yesterday it had to
 protect itself against US attempts to subvert the government. It also maintained that the cases'
 timing had nothing to do with war in Iraq.

 The United States, which has dismissed the Cuban allegations, condemned the crackdown. ''This is
 symptomatic of the dictatorship of the Cuban regime,'' White House press secretary Ari Fleischer
 said yesterday.

 The known sentences for 57 of the government opponents who were tried ranged from 6 to 28
 years. The remaining 18 sentences were expected by the end of the week. None of the trials has
 lasted more than a day, activists said. There were no reports of acquittals.

 ''We have been patient, we have been tolerant,'' Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said. ''But
 we have been obligated to apply our laws.''

 Perez Roque also denied international accusations that the arrests and convictions over the course
 of three weeks were timed so that the world's attention would be focused on war.

 The defendants included independent journalists, prodemocracy activists, opposition party leaders,
 and other dissidents.

 They were arrested last month and accused of receiving American government funds and
 collaborating with US diplomats to undermine the socialist state.

 The United Nations also protested the quick trials.

 ''There are questions about the fairness of such expedited proceedings,'' said Sergio Vieira de
 Mello, the United Nations' high commissioner for human rights. ''Cuba must ensure that the accused
 benefit from due process.''

 Perez Roque presented letters and detailed lists of payments among numerous documents he said
 proved the defendants were linked to and receiving money from the US government.

 Many of the payments the foreign minister mentioned appeared to come from Miami- or
 Washington-based groups that receive funds from the US Agency for International Development to
 support the opposition and prepare for a transition in Cuba.

 The foreign minister also said that the legal proceedings strictly followed Cuban law, with all
 defendants represented by attorneys. They all heard the charges against them and had a chance to
 respond, and, in each case, both evidence and witnesses were presented in open court, he said.

 All have the right to appeal, he said.

 Countering criticism that the proceedings were closed to foreign diplomats and reporters, he said
 there was not enough room in the court.

 At the trials, state security agents who had posed as dissidents revealed their true identities and
 testified for the state.

 The foreign minister singled out US Interests Section Chief James Cason for criticism. Cuban
 authorities accuse Cason of violating diplomatic protocol with his support of groups opposed to
 President Fidel Castro's government.

 ''Our patience ran out with Mr. Cason,'' Per ez Roque said.

 Cason this week once again denied the Cuban government's accusations that the US Interests
 Section had local dissidents on its payroll, saying the mission operates no differently than American
 embassies in other countries.

 Castro was enraged by Cason's meeting with dissidents at one of their homes in late February and
 the diplomat's subsequent declaration that ''the Cuban government is afraid: afraid of freedom of
 conscience, afraid of freedom of expression, afraid of human rights.''

 ''Actually, Cuba is so afraid that it will calmly take all the time needed to decide on its course of
 action regarding this bizarre official,'' Castro said a few weeks later.