By LESLEY CLARK AND FRANCES ROBLES

Cuba's decades-old suspension from the Organization of American States appears to be coming to an end: now even the United States has proposed a way to make it happen.

As more nations clamor to lift the communist country's 1962 suspension from the hemispheric organization, the U.S. State Department on Wednesday tried to head off the growing movement by submitting its own proposal that would eventually bring Cuba back -- as long as Havana abides by the organization's democratic principles. ''This is an incredibly smart way to conduct Cuba policy,'' said businessman Carlos Saladrigas, who heads the Cuba Study Group, an organization of moderate Cuba-watchers.

``It puts Cuba on the defensive and increases the reasonableness of the United States in the eyes of the world. For the first time in many years, Washington is acting strategically.''

But after a three-hour debate by the OAS Permanent Council in Washington, the ambassadors assembled came no closer to agreeing on how to bring Cuba back into the diplomatic fold.

Facing rival resolutions, including one each from Nicaragua and Honduras that would lift Cuba's suspension outright, the council agreed to create a working group to present a single recommendation to the OAS General Assembly meeting next week in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

SUSPENDED IN 1962

Cuba was suspended from the OAS in 1962 because of its alliance with the Soviet Union. The majority of nations in the hemisphere say it's time to lift a suspension that has become obsolete.

''This was a decision that was based on politics, which had no legal basis,'' said Nicaraguan Ambassador Denis Moncada.

But the swelling pressure to reintegrate Cuba is controversial, particularly in South Florida, because the OAS's own charter calls for democracy.

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., threatened to cut off the organization's funding, most of which comes from Washington.

The OAS makes its decisions by consensus, and after last month's Summit of the Americas conference in Trinidad, it became increasingly clear that Washington did not have the support to pressure for Cuba's exclusion. So Washington came up with a way for Cuba to be included, instead.

''We share the aspiration of other member states that our organization be whole again, and are ready to begin a process for doing so,'' said U.S. Ambassador Hector E. Morales Jr.

The resolution would order the OAS council to begin talks with Cuba about rejoining the organization Cuba has publicly lambasted. If approved, the OAS Permanent Council would start those talks and report back in a year.

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-South Florida, said the State Department move essentially ''jump-starts'' Cuba's reintegration.

`AN AFFRONT'

''This is an affront to all who have died for freedom and democracy in Cuba; to all who languish in Castro's jails; and to all who continue to suffer under the iron grip of the Cuban regime,'' she said.

Former U.S. diplomat Gary Mayburduk said Washington's tactic was a clever way to ease mounting pressure.

''Cuba's re-entry into the OAS would make a mockery of the Inter-American Democratic Charter,'' he said. ``This resolution is consistent with Obama's desire for dialogue, but does not in any way guarantee Cuba's re-entry to the OAS. I don't think it's going to get Cuba in.

``Diplomacy is full of face-saving ways out.''

For all the flap, Cuba says it isn't interested in joining the ``empire.''

''One way or another, the OAS is totally anachronistic,'' Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez was quoted as saying in Tuesday's Cuban newspapers. ``It serves other interests.''