By Charles Abbott

               WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congress will face new proposals to relax the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba next year, advocates
               say, probably highlighted by a bid to allow U.S. tourism to the next-door nation in the Caribbean.

                Sanctions were imposed in the early 1960s after Cuba accepted aid from the Soviet Union. With the end of the Cold War, calls
               have risen for closer relations with Cuba.

               Food was exempted from the embargo two years ago. But proposals for further easing have faltered, partly due to opposition by
               House Republican leaders like Tom DeLay of Texas, who will become majority leader in January.

               With time running out for this month's "lame duck" session, there was little chance Congress would alter the embargo this year.
               Adjournment, expected later this week, would kill proposals to allow tourism, remove limits on the amount of money Americans
               can send to relatives in Cuba and lower obstacles to sales of food and medicine.

               "Travel is the crown jewel" in the tussle over U.S. sanctions, said Brian Alexander of the Cuba Policy Foundation, which supports
               an end to the embargo.

               Alexander foresaw debate over smaller issues as well as lightning rods like the travel ban. U.S. tourism to Cuba is banned in most
               cases. This year's initiatives foundered because "Congress ran out of time to do its business," he said, not due to a lack of
               interest among lawmakers.

               "We're going to be continuing to focus on the travel ban," said a spokesman for Rep. Jeff Flake, Arizona Republican and a leader
               of the bipartisan Cuba Working Group in the House. The group also would permit private U.S. financing of food exports. Only cash
               sales are allowed now.

               Dennis Hays of the Cuban American National Foundation, a prominent critic of Cuban President Fidel Castro (news - web sites),
               said enthusiasm for easing the embargo was dissipating.

               "Cuba is not a good partner as long as you have an unselected dictator in power," Hays said. He described Cuba as a bad credit
               risk for trade and far from an ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism.

               In the U.S. business community, there was interest in exempting sales of farm equipment from the embargo, viewed as a logical
               expansion of the food sales. If dairy cows can be sold, so should U.S. milking machines, the reasoning went. A congressional
               sponsor for the idea has not been found.

               Enlarging the agricultural exemption would be a change in tack from the current drive to let U.S. banks underwrite food sales to
               Cuba.

               It also would be less of a challenge to President Bush (news - web sites)'s pledge, made last May 20, to veto changes in the
               embargo until a new government is installed in Havana, said one person versed in the matter.

               Havana was forecast to buy $165 million in U.S. food and farm exports this year, a dramatic change from two years ago when
               Castro swore his country would never buy a single grain of rice until the economic embargo was lifted entirely.

               About 176,000 U.S. citizens visited Cuba last year, most of them arriving under one of the exceptions allowed to the travel ban.
               About 20,000 Americans evaded the ban by traveling through a third nation, according to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic
               Council, which monitors trade between the nations.

               Some 1.8 million tourists visited Cuba last year. Cuba has encouraged tourism as a source of hard currency.

               When Congress convenes for its new session, there will be some shifting among the posts that could influence the debate on
               Cuba policy.

               Embargo supporter DeLay, now the assistant Republican leader in the House, will become majority leader. Indiana Republican
               Richard Lugar, a skeptic of unilateral embargoes, will become chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, succeeding
               Castro critic Jesse Helms, North Carolina Republican, who is retiring.

               "How far any legislation moves in 2003 will be directly proportional to the level of economic activity between the United States and
               Cuba," said John Kavulich of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. "If activity remains constant or increases, the
               constituency in the House or Senate will increase proportionally."

               Mary Kay Thatcher, a lobbyist for the largest U.S. farm group, the 5.1 million-member American Farm Bureau (news - web sites)
               Federation, said she expected sentiment would continue to build for more trade with Cuba.

               AFBF president Bob Stallman and five state Farm Bureau presidents were scheduled to arrive in Cuba on Monday for a five-day
               visit. They are expected to meet Pedro Alvarez, head of Cuba's state-run food importing company and to visit a dairy processing
               plant and a sugar mill.