"My prediction for 2002, despite the events of September 11 and a 40-year history,
                 is that we may see some dramatic breakthroughs," Sally Grooms Cowal said as she
                 wrapped up a visit to the island with six U.S. representatives of Congress.

                 "There is a real desire on the part of the government, the entrepreneurs and the
                 dissidents" in Cuba for rapprochement, said Cowal, president of the Cuba Policy
                 Foundation, and former ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago.

                 U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, a Democrat from Massachusetts, said he had a similar
                 sense after the fourth meeting he has held in recent years with President Fidel
                 Castro.

                 "This one was really distinguished by its tone," Delahunt said of the Sunday night
                 dinner he and other members of the delegation had with Castro. "There was a
                 willingness to be open, a willingness to accept opportunities."

                 Both Cowal and Delahunt said that contracts negotiated last month for the first
                 direct sales of American food to Cuba in nearly four decades evidently have given
                 Cuban officials hope that improved relations between the countries is possible.

                 "Cuba made it happen," Cowal said, noting that the American law allowing the sales
                 had been in effect for a year before Cuban officials decided to take advantage of it.

                 Before Hurricane Michelle marched across the island in November, causing
                 extensive damage to central Cuba, Havana had refused to buy a single grain of U.S.
                 rice under the law because it banned American financing for the purchases.

                 Afterward, Havana said it would make a one-time exception and buy American food
                 to replenish its reserves.

                 "The hurricane refocused their attention and let them get beyond the stalemate,"
                 Cowal said.

                 Havana has toned down its anti-American rhetoric somewhat in the last month or
                 so, and recently said it would offer no opinion on the use of the U.S. naval base in
                 Guantanamo, Cuba, for the housing of Taliban and Al-Qaida prisoners.

                 Communist Cuba has long opposed the presence of the American base, which oper
                 ates under a treaty signed between the two countries long before the 1959
                 revolution.

                 The United States has maintained a trade embargo on Cuba for 40 years.

                 Supporters of the sanctions say they are necessary to pressure Castro, and U.S.
                 President George Bush has vowed not to approve any easing of the embargo until
                 Castro replaces his communist system with an American-style democracy.

                 But there has been growing support among some members of Congress in recent
                 years to ease the sanctions and allow hard-hit American farmers access to a new
                 market.

                 Cowal said the custody battle over Elian Gonzalez prompted many Americans to
                 focus on, and in many cases question, long-standing U.S. policies toward Cuba.

                 As president of the Youth for Understanding International Exchange, Cowal allowed
                 Elian and his father to stay at the organization's estate in Washington during their
                 last five weeks in the United States before returning to Cuba in June 2000.

                 The ambassador later formed the Cuba Policy Foundation to support efforts to ease
                 U.S. sanctions against Cuba.

                 Elian was cast adrift at sea in November 1999 after his mother and other would-be
                 Cuban immigrants perished when their boat sank off the Florida coast.

                  Copyright 2002 The Associated Press.