Cuban musicians nominated for this weekend's Grammy Awards in Los Angeles are not being allowed to attend.

  HAVANA - (AP) -- Cuban musicians invited to attend this weekend's Grammy Awards in Los Angeles have been denied U.S. visas needed to attend the ceremony, a top Culture Ministry official said Thursday.

  ''Something as noble as music is being converted into a policy against Cuba,'' Vice Minister of Culture Abel Acosta told a news conference.

  Surrounded by some of the Cuban musicians nominated for awards, Acosta showed journalists the letters from the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, denying their visa
  requests.

  The letters cited Section 212f of U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Law, which states that the American president can deny U.S. entry to foreigners when their coming to the country is deemed ``detrimental to the interests of the United States.''

  ''We continue to make judgments on a case-by-case basis, and we issue visas only when applicants qualify under U.S. law,'' a State Department official in Washington told The Herald.

  In March 1999, the U.S. government exempted broad categories of Cubans, including artists, from restrictions cited in Section 212f. But the Bush administration has since returned to that policy to prevent the flow of dollars through compensation received by the artists, considered to be government employees, from reaching Cuba's coffers.

  ''Our purpose then was to encourage people-to-people exchanges and thereby advance the process of democratic transition in Cuba,'' the State Department official said.
  ``We decided to return to the policy in effect before 1999 because the Castro regime has taken advantage of the exemption to enrich the government.''

  Singer Ibrahim Ferrer of the Buena Vista Social Club, a multiple Grammy winner, was among those at the news conference in Havana on Thursday. Other Cuban artists nominated for this year's Grammy awards were percussionist Amadito Valdes, veteran guitarist Manuel Galvan and singer Barbarito Torres.

  Cuba's artists have been absent from the awards ceremony since 2001, when rules for those seeking entry into the United States were toughened after the Sept. 11
  terrorist attacks.

  Ferrer and pianist Chucho Valdés were among the Cuban artists who missed the Latin Grammy Awards in Miami last fall.

  U.S. officials at the time said that of the seven Cuban artists who submitted visa applications, three were denied and the application process for the other four came too
  late for processing under the stricter rules.
 

  Herald staff writer Nancy San Martin contributed to this report.