By ADRIAN SAINZ
Associated Press

CORAL GABLES -- .The United States will freeze the bank accounts of companies it believes are controlled by the Cuban government or Cuban nationals and sell Americans illegal travel packages to the communist island, officials said Monday.

The Treasury Department's action marks the latest development emerging from President Bush's call for more stringent enforcement of provisions that forbid most travel to Cuba. Exceptions to the travel ban include humanitarian travelers, relatives of Cubans and journalists.

Treasury Secretary John Snow said nine of the overseas entities specialize in travel to Cuba and one company sends gifts to the island. The companies' bank accounts and wire transfers will be frozen and people in the United States are barred from doing business with them.

Law enforcement officials have intercepted a number of unauthorized travelers whose tour packages were bought through one of these companies. The companies, which make up a large portion of the Cuban travel industry, use the Internet and advertising to target U.S. travelers, the department said.

Snow accused the companies of ``lining the pockets'' of Cuban President Fidel Castro by providing easy access to ``U.S. individuals who choose to break the law.''

Snow told about 50 members of anti-Castro groups that the agencies' sales "benefit that oppressive regime and not the people of Cuba.''

Snow pledged that Bush would continue to strictly enforce the 41-year-old embargo, despite calls by some in Congress to ease sanctions against Cuba.

"The President detests, loathes the Cuban government and what it stands for,'' Snow said.

The crackdown also affects travel agents. Any agency that uses these tourism companies or provides Cuban travel packages without a license from the Treasury Department would face civil and criminal penalties, said Juan Zarate, Treasury's deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing.

By identifying the companies, the U.S. government is warning unlicensed travel agencies and Americans who use them to travel to Cuba without authorization that they can be punished, Zarate said.

The move was welcomed by the fervently anti-Castro Cuban-Americans who attended a closed-door meeting with Snow. Luis Zuniga, member of the Cuban Liberty Council, said enforcement of the embargo is essential to bringing political change in Cuba, because it's not coming from within.

"The island of Cuba is property of Fidel Castro. That's how he thinks,'' Zuniga said. ``Castro has never accepted any form of negotiation over his power over the Cuban
people.''

The government late last year stepped up enforcement of the travel ban by intensifying training of customs inspectors as well as inspections of travelers and shipments,
especially certain flights out of Miami, New York and Los Angeles. As a result, around 275 people were denied travel on charter flights to Cuba after examinations
revealed they did not qualify for one of the travel exemptions, the department said.

Last year, both the Republican-led House and Senate voted to end the travel ban, but congressional negotiators stripped that provision out of a compromise measure to
finance the Treasury and Transportation departments. The White House had threatened to veto legislation that would have weakened the travel ban.

Snow defended the department's decision last March to get rid of a ``people-to-people'' education license that allowed Americans to travel to Cuba for educational
purposes unrelated to academic course work.

``The license had increasingly been abused for trips that amounted to little more than tourist travel, thus undermining the intentions of the U.S. sanctions against Cuba. So
we got rid of it.'' Snow said.

The 10 companies named in Monday's action are: Travel companies: Canada Inc., Montreal and Quebec; Corporacion Cimex S.A., Havana and all other locations
worldwide; Havanatur S.A., Havana and other cities in Cuba; Havanatur, S.A., Buenos Aires, Argentina; Havanatur Bahamas Ltd, Nassau; Havanatur Chile S.A.,
Santiago, Chile; Cubanacan Group, Havana; Cubanacan International B.V., Zevenhuizen, Netherlands; and Cubanacan U.K., Limited, London.

The 10th company, La Compania Tiendas Universo, S.A., Cuba, operates an Internet shopping site, www.cuba-shop.net.

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