BY NANCY SAN MARTIN AND FRANK DAVIES

The enforcement of new U.S. regulations on travel to Cuba will be delayed by one month for U.S. residents who legally traveled to the island and can't get back before the new rules take effect next week, the Treasury Department announced Friday.

The reprieve means that U.S. residents on the island visiting relatives or under ''fully hosted'' licenses will not be hit with the $7,500 fine that kicks in June 30 if they get back by 12:01 a.m. Aug. 1.

The new regulations have created a frenzy among Cuban Americans at the Miami and Havana airports, with thousands of people scurrying to get in or out of the island before the deadline Wednesday.

''The purpose of this is to help people who logistically can't get out of Cuba before June 30,'' said Molly Millerwise, a Treasury spokeswoman.

ON OR BEFORE JUNE 29

The delay applies only to those in Cuba on or before June 29.

June 30 restrictions on family visits to once every three years, instead of annually, remain intact.

Limitations on baggage, gift parcels and remittances remain effective as well.

HOPE FOR DEMOCRACY

The measures are part of a long list of tightenings of U.S. sanctions on Cuba.

President Bush ordered these measures last month in an attempt to hasten the fall of the communist government and speed a transition to democracy.

These measures were included in a 500-page report released in Washington by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, a cabinet-level group created by Bush last year.

In an interview with WFOR-CBS4, Cuba's chief diplomat in Washington, Dagoberto Rodríguez, said the new rules were ''a cruel measure against the families'' and called Bush ``the great family divider.''

But he also acknowledged that the regulations will have ''a very serious impact'' on Cuba's economy -- an objective U.S. officials have said is a key ingredient to dismantling the island's socialist system.

U.S. OBJECTIONS

U.S. lawmakers on Capitol Hill, meanwhile, turned up the pressure on the controversial new measures.

Rep. Jim Davis, a Tampa Democrat who supports the economic embargo against Cuba, joined forces with several long-time embargo opponents this week on a bill to erase the toughened restrictions.

''These new rules make it harder for Cuban Americans to support their own flesh and blood,'' Davis said Friday, adding that he plans to propose his bill, filed this week, as an amendment to one of the must-pass spending bills later this year.

Davis criticized the restrictions that will block Cuban Americans from sending remittances to aunts, uncles or cousins, and limit visitors' baggage to 44 pounds. He said the limit of one visit every three years is ''punitive'' and forces people to make difficult decisions on when to visit a dying relative.

THIS YEAR'S FOCUS

Several longtime embargo opponents, including Democrats William Delahunt of Massachusetts, Charles Rangel of New York and Maxine Waters of California, said they would focus on the new travel restrictions this year.

''The Bush administration made a grave political miscalculation with these new restrictions, and I think you will see them backing away from them when more people realize what is at stake,'' Delahunt said.