By TIM JOHNSON

  WASHINGTON - President Bush set tough conditions on Monday for easing a trade embargo of Cuba, saying his administration will do so only if Cuba's
  ''tyrant'' moves to hold free and fair elections and adopts market reforms.

  ''Meaningful reform on Cuba's part will be answered with a meaningful American response,'' Bush said in a White House speech laying out his views on
  Cuba.

  But Bush insisted that his administration will not budge on lifting a four-decade-old embargo unless Cuban leader Fidel Castro allows a political opposition
  to emerge, frees political prisoners, improves human rights conditions and allows outside monitors in to observe 2003 elections.

  ''All elections in Castro's Cuba have been a fraud,'' Bush said in the 20-minute speech before several hundred prominent Cuban Americans, diplomats and
  legislators in the East Room of the White House.

  Bush used stronger language in describing the Castro regime than any U.S. president in more than a decade, receiving vigorous applause.

  While Cuba's independence 100 years ago brought visionaries to the fore, Bush said, ``that legacy of courage has been insulted by a tyrant who uses
  brutal methods to enforce a bankrupt vision.

  ``That legacy has been debased by a relic from another era, who turned a beautiful island into a prison.''