HAVANA -- Cuba's parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcon on Thursday criticized what he said was a U.S. plan for a "free Cuba."

Speaking at a general meeting of Cuba's National Assembly attended by President Fidel Castro, Alarcon said that under such a plan Cubans would lose their property and key social benefits.

The United States wants to "convert our country into an American territory, and subject our people to slavery," said Alarcon, the president of the assembly.

The assessment came in the wake of a new U.S. policies to restrict travel and other types of economic activity, moves aimed at pushing out Castro and squeezing the island's economy.

Several others of the hundreds of legislators attending the meeting spoke out against the U.S. measures before condemning them in a resolution.

Providing his vision of a U.S. plan, Alarcon said all sectors of the economy would be privatized and subsidies and price controls affecting goods and services would be abolished.

"This would be a return to capitalism in its most brutal form, under the yoke of a foreign power," said Alarcon.

A few hours later, and just a few blocks away, the chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana hosted an early 4th of July celebration at his residence.

James Cason did not mention the latest U.S. measures, but praised U.S.-style democracy and said that despite flaws, the system allows for freedom of expression and defense of human rights -- unlike in Cuba, he said.

The island's best-known dissidents and wives of Cuban political prisoners attended the event, which included a military ceremony and live bluegrass music by Tony Ellis and the Musicians of Braeburn.

Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press