By ANITA SNOW
Associated Press Writer

HAVANA -- Cuba's parliament speaker defended a crackdown on 75 activists last year, telling a group of American newspaper editors Monday that Cuba's internal security is more important than its image abroad.

The dissidents were sentenced to terms of six to 28 years last March after they were charged with working for the United States to undermine the communist government of Fidel Castro. Washington denies the allegations, and they have said their only crime was speaking their mind.

Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly, repeated that the 75 were mercenaries working to subvert the island's socialist system.

"Are you just supposed to cross your arms and let a big power plot against you?" Alarcon asked. "We have to defend ourselves, we have to protect ourselves."

"No nation can base its conduct relating to fundamental national security based on how the media might reflect what you do," he said.

Alarcon made the comments at a meeting with the board of directors for The Associated Press Managing Editors, which represents 1,700 newspapers in the United States and Canada. The board arrived here Sunday for a two-day stay after visiting Mexico, where they met with President Vicente Fox.

Earlier Monday, the group had separate private briefings with Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque and James Cason, chief of the U.S. Interests Section -- the American mission here. They also met with several dissidents during their visit, which ends early Tuesday.

Governments and rights groups condemned Cuba a year ago this month when the activists were sentenced. They all remain behind bars.

Debate over the issue has been renewed with last month's anniversary of the arrests and a proposed vote on Cuba's rights record by the U.N. Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva.

Honduras announced last week that it would sponsor the resolution, to be taken up by the United Nations body in mid-April.

Alarcon also expressed dismay about U.S. officials' decision to cancel regular migration talks scheduled for Havana in January. He said it was another sign the two countries were headed toward confrontation.

"I don't have any hope the talks will resume," Alarcon said. The meetings were the highest level contact between the two countries that haven't had diplomatic relations for more than four decades.

Held every six months, the meetings were established to monitor 1994 and 1995 accords designed to promote legal, orderly migration between the two countries -- and prevent a mass exodus, as in 1994 when tens of thousands of Cubans took to the sea in flimsy vessels for Florida.

The United States said it suspended the talks because of Cuba's repeated refusal to discuss key issues, while Cuba blamed the suspension on U.S. presidential election politics.

"Clearly it is a concession to those (Cuban exiles) in Miami who have been pushing for the elimination of the migration agreements," Alarcon said.

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