By PHILIP BRASHER
  The Associated Press

  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Bush administration officials denied Tuesday they were discouraging sales of
  U.S. food to Cuba but defended their recent cancellation of visas for Cuban trade officials.

  Otto Reich, assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere, said the officials representing
  a food-purchasing agency planned an extensive speaking tour to lobby against U.S. trade
  restrictions on Cuba.

  Cuba is moving forward with purchases of U.S. food without the need for such visits, Reich told a
  Senate Commerce subcommittee.

  "Despite the Castro regime's implacable hostility, the administration has carried out and will
  continue to carry out its responsibilities" under a 2000 law that allows Cuba to purchase U.S. food,
  Reich said.

  The law requires Cuba to pay cash or else obtain financing from another country; up to $100 million
  in sales have been made or are in the works. The Bush administration has resisted pressure from
  Congress to allow U.S. banks to begin financing such sales.

  Senate Democrats said the 40-year-old trade embargo on Cuba is self-defeating because it has
  punished the Cuban people and U.S. producers without dislodging President Fidel Castro.

  President Bush said Monday that he would not consider easing the embargo until the country
  enacts sweeping political and economic reforms. Bush threatened to veto any legislation that would
  lift the blockade or tourism restrictions. Critics of his policy say the United States does not set
  similar demands on other countries with which it has normal relations, such as China.

  "The use of food as a weapon is fundamentally wrong," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.

  Additional sales of food have been "made more difficult by the antipathy of the State Department,"
  Dorgan said.

  Reich said the visas were initially granted to the Cuban trade officials because of miscommunication
  between U.S. officials in Havana and Washington. The visas were subsequently canceled.

  Cuban officials will be permitted to visit the United States to inspect the cleanliness of agricultural
  production facilities, Reich said.

  The food purchases Cuba has made this year "demonstrate the Cuban regime's strong motivation to
  complete sales, particularly taking into account that the Cuba government has chosen to use its
  very limited foreign exchange reserves in these transactions," Reich said.

  American farm groups and food companies see Cuba as a huge new market, and portray increased
  trade as a humanitarian gesture.

  Cuba's purchases have included corn, rice, wheat, chicken, apples and pork lard. The sales have
  been spread among 25 states.

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