By REUTERS

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday defied the White House and backed a measure that would allow Cuban American families to visit Cuba more frequently.

The Bush administration, in a statement, had asked lawmakers not to make any changes to its Cuba travel policy saying that limiting its ability to enforce the policy would help the ``desperate and repressive'' regime of Fidel Castro.

Cuba policy is extremely sensitive in Florida, a key swing state in the presidential race where Cuban Americans form a crucial voting bloc.

The House voted 225 to 174 to support the amendment which was tacked onto a spending bill funding the Departments of Transport and Treasury in 2005.

The measure, introduced by Florida Democrat Rep. Jim Davis, would allow Cubans living in the United States to visit Cuba every year, rather than the once every three years that the new travel restrictions allow.

``The United States should not be in the business of separating families,'' Davis said.

The administration earlier this year imposed additional restrictions, limiting how often Cuban Americans can visit relatives on the island or what supplies they can send them.

Those moves have angered some Cuban Americans, a bloc that overwhelmingly voted Republican in 2000.

``These sweeping changes were enacted without one single hearing in Congress,'' Davis said.

The Senate would also need to vote in favor of the measure and it would need to be signed by President Bush before it could become law.

Last week, Rep. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican withdrew a broader amendment to the same bill saying it was not possible to have a meaningful debate on it in an election year.

If approved, that measure would have ended the U.S. travel ban on Cuba. The Bush administration had threatened to veto the bill if it contained such language.

Both the House and the Senate in the past have backed altering the trade embargo to allow legal travel to Cuba. But the measure always has been stripped from final versions of bills and never been signed into law.

Another Davis resolution was approved in July. It sought to block new restrictions on Cuban Americans' ability to mail supplies such as clothing or soap to relatives still in Cuba.