By KEN THOMAS
The Associated Press

MIAMI - Democrats criticizing the Bush administration's new travel restrictions to Cuba suggested Thursday that it could help presidential candidate John Kerry peel away some Cuban-American voters traditionally loyal to Republicans.

The new rules that began Wednesday are part of the administration's attempt to undercut Cuban President Fidel Castro. The restrictions have generated criticism from some Cuban-Americans, including a group that was unable to catch an expected flight Tuesday at Miami International Airport.

Kerry called it a "cynical, election-year policy'' that would ``harm Cuban-Americans with families on the island while doing nothing to hasten the end of the Castro regime.''

U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, D- Miami, said it represented a hard-right turn by the Bush administration, arguing the Massachusetts senator could offer an alternative to the heavily Republican Cuban- American community.

``I think what the president has done has motivated several individuals who gave him the benefit of the doubt for carrying out sound leadership. They're going to find other people to vote for - that other person is John Kerry,'' said Meek, Kerry's state campaign chairman.

Cuban-Americans supported Bush in 2000 by about 4-to- 1, a critical margin in a state where Bush won by only 537 votes. Recent polls show Bush and Kerry locked in a neck- and-neck contest in Florida.

U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, rejected the Democrats' assertions, saying the support in the exile community for Bush and his package of reforms to democratize Cuba has been ``unprecedented - beyond overwhelming.''

In addition to the travel restrictions, the measures announced this year include funding for dissidents, democracy-building activities and aid to end the jamming of U.S. broadcasts to the island.

"An election is coming in November - watch,'' Diaz- Balart said, predicting Bush will add to his margin among Cuban-Americans in 2000. He called reports of dissension among Cuban-Americans "on another planet.''

State GOP Chairman Carole Jean Jordan said the president "has done more toward the realization of a free Cuba in three years than John Kerry ever did in his 19 years in the Senate.''

The new travel rules bar Cuban-Americans from visiting family on the island nation more than once every three years instead of once a year. They also limit visits to 14 days and daily spending to $50 per person. Before, there were no limits on visit length, and people could spend $167 a day.

Miami television newscasts showed images Tuesday of dozens of Cuban-Americans chanting ``We want to fly!'' after they were turned away from flights to visit their families as the deadline approached. The charter they had expected to fly on went to Havana empty to pick up Cuban-Americans returning to Miami.

Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation, said the organization supported "99 percent'' of the tough new strategy on Cuba but the president "received bad counsel'' on the travel restrictions.

"One little thing of this has divided it and eclipsed a series of measures that are fantastic,'' Garcia said. "We love what the president did. We're friends with the president of the United States, many of the people here. But those people who want to see a good policy certainly don't want to see it mucked up by bad politics.''

Whether it would provide Kerry an opening to whittle away at Bush's Cuban-American support remained uncertain. Some Democrats have pointed to former President Clinton's relative success with Cubans in 1996 as a model - he earned nearly 40 percent.