BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER

  ATLANTA - Former President Jimmy Carter, who 10 months ago made headlines by endorsing a pro-democracy petition in a nationally televised speech during a visit to Cuba, said Tuesday that he is ''disappointed'' by the Cuban regime's lack of response to the request.

  In an interview with The Herald, Carter called on Cuba's National Assembly to vote on the Varela Project, the petition signed by 11,020 Cubans on the island that asks for a referendum under the current Cuban laws on whether the island should enact legislative changes guaranteeing freedom of speech, and free elections.

  Carter, who was chairing three-day conference on ''Financing Democracy in the Americas'' organized by the Carter Center, said that ``we have to be constantly critical of any violation in Cuba of their own Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly, which in my opinion authorizes the Varela Project.''

  ''I've been disappointed that the National Assembly did not accept the Varela petition and act on that petition, one way or another,'' Carter added.

  On the other hand, Carter reiterated his opposition to current U.S. policy on Cuba, stating that maintaining the current travel ban and the U.S. trade embargo on the island are "one of the worst things the United States can do.''

  He added: "The best way to have slow, evolutionary political change is to have unimpeded access to the Cuban people and to the thousands of people in the Cuban government through free visitation.''

  During his highly publicized trip to Cuba last May -- the first visit by a sitting or former U.S. president to the island since 1928 -- Carter had used the occasion of a
  nationally televised speech at the University of Havana to talk about the Varela petition, and to ask that it be allowed to be published in the Cuban media. Because of the Cuban regime's stringent censorship, the referendum request has not been published in Cuba's mass media until now.

  Referring to the Cuban government's claims that it could not consider the referendum request because it allegedly demanded constitutional changes, which would require a different procedure under Cuban laws, Carter said, ``I read the Varela petition very carefully, and I read the Cuban Constitution. In my opinion, the Varela petition does not call for constitutional changes. It calls for changes in statutory laws.''

  Asked whether he is supporting the nomination of Varela Project leader Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas to win a Nobel peace prize, Carter -- who won the award last year -- smiled and said, "I don't want to single out one person, but it would please me if anyone who works for freedom or for democracy was honored.''

  Carter refused to say whether he has supported any particular nomination.

  ''That's a private thing for me,'' he said.