By Rafael Lorente
Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON · A bipartisan congressional group that favors easing the embargo on Cuba plans to issue a formal review of U.S. policy toward the island, putting
it on a collision course with the Bush administration, whose policy review is expected to recommend tightening sanctions against the communist-ruled country.

The Cuba Working Group, which includes 17 Republicans and 17 Democrats, none of them from Florida, wants to eliminate the ban on travel to Cuba, lift financing
restrictions on sales of food to the island and generally foster closer ties. The group plans to issue a report next month, at the same time as the White House.

"This is a significant gathering here," Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said at Thursday's news conference announcing the formation of the group. "When you look at
the people who are at the podium here -- Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives -- we represent the mainstream."

The new group is taking shape as years of business lobbying against the embargo are having an effect.

In the past few months, the Cuban government has taken advantage of a 2000 law allowing direct sales of U.S-grown food. Since November, Cuba has purchased
or arranged to purchase $73 million of food from at least 14 U.S. companies, according to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council.

The commodities are from 23 states, which could influence members of Congress from agricultural areas. Forty-seven percent of House and Senate members are
from those states.

But Cuba is not allowed to obtain financing, forcing it to pay cash.

Legislation allowing private financing is in an agricultural bill that passed the Senate, but it may face stiff resistance from Bush-backed Republicans in the House.

Despite restrictions, U.S. citizens have been traveling to Cuba in large numbers, with legal and illegal visitors estimated at 176,000 last year. The Treasury
Department has made some efforts to crack down, but those do not appear to have stemmed the tide of visitors.

"The policy as it's currently being enforced is untenable," said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and a leader of the new group.

The group also plans to issue recommendations about Radio and Television Martí, Cuba's place on the State Department's list of nations that sponsor terrorism, the
embargo and cooperation on drug interdiction.

But while the new group is pushing for closer ties, the White House is going in the other direction.

In its policy review, the Bush administration is expected to offer ways to better enforce the travel ban and tighten the economic and political noose around Cuba.
Bush opposes any easing of the embargo unless Fidel Castro allows democratic elections and other reforms.

Dennis Hays, the Cuban American National Foundation's executive vice president and head of its Washington office, said in a letter to the Cuba Working Group that
tourists who visit the island should at least refrain from patronizing government-owned hotels and restaurants because of the way Cuba treats its people. Instead,
visitors should stay in private homes and eat at private restaurants, he said.

"The Castro regime systematically discriminates against blacks in employment in the hotel industry, segregates the Cuban people from hotels and resort areas [tourist
apartheid], and violates every standard of worker rights while beating and imprisoning union activists," Hays' letter said.

Rafael Lorente can be reached at rlorente@sun-sentinel.com or 202-824-8225 in Washington.