HAVANA -- (AP) -- A group of prominent Americans gathering information for a report on U.S. polices toward Cuba ended up a visit here Sunday after meeting with government officials, church leaders and ordinary Cubans.

 ``The only requirement that we had is that everyone come with an open mind,'' said James R. Jones, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico and the chairman of the group that visited with the Washington think-tank Center for National Policy. Jones, speaking to reporters on Saturday night, said the center's Cuba Policy Advisory Group will later put their impressions in a report. They will include specific recommendations for possible changes in U.S. policy toward the communist country.

 ``We have formed no recommendations yet,'' said Jones. ``We don't want to tell the Cubans what to do but decide what is best for the United States.''

 Members of the delegation included former Texas Gov. Ann Richards; Alexander F. Watson, former Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs; Harriet Fulbright, president of the Fulbright International Center; Peter Magowan, president and managing general partner of the San Francisco Giants; and Msgr. Thomas Wenski, auxiliary bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami.

 A second trip to Cuba by advisory group members unable to join the first group is expected later this year.

 Delegation members last week visited a primary school with education officials, toured a children's hospital with public health officials, met with Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque and National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcón, among other national leaders. They also talked with Roman Catholic Cardinal Jaime Ortega and officials with Caritas, the Catholic humanitarian organization. The Center for National Policy completed a similar study and final report before the United States normalized relations with Vietnam. Former Secretary of State Edmund Muskie led a similar 12-member center-sponsored delegation to Vietnam in April 1993.

 ``We like to think that we helped move things along,'' said Maureen Steinbrunner, who succeeded Madeleine Albright as president of the center in 1993. However, she noted that U.S. policy toward Cuba in many ways is more complicated and has been in place much longer -- four decades now.
 

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