HAVANA -- (AP) -- An opposition coalition on Monday called for a democratic
 opening in communist Cuba that would permit greater personal and economic
 freedom.

 ``Cuba, as we have expressed many times, must not and cannot continue
 trapped in a closed and immobile system,'' read a document given to foreign
 journalists on Monday but dated Jan. 31.

 The document was signed by members of five political groups, including the
 Democratic Solidarity Party and the Liberal Democratic Party. The groups are not
 officially registered and therefore deemed illegal by the government.

 The coalition, calling itself the Reflective Roundtable of the Moderate Opposition,
 said Cuba's problems include a ``lack of political and social liberties, ideology and
 politics in all areas of national life, halted development of individual initiative in the
 economic sphere.''

 It said that the best answer to the nation's problems would be a democratic
 transition.

 Cuba's communist leaders do not appear to be planning any major political
 changes soon. Late last year, President Fidel Castro criticized ``so-called
 democracies'' such as the United States, saying that Cuban socialism is a much
 fairer and just system.

 Last September, the Moderate Opposition sent Castro a long proposal for ``a
 gradual, peaceful, thoughtful and deliberate process of changes, from one state of
 society to another.''

 There was never any government response to that first document and there was
 no immediate reaction to the latest one. The government generally does not
 comment on opposition groups, which it usually describes as
 ``counterrevolutionaries.''

 The group's earlier document was among the most detailed and serious written
 proposals made by the opposition in recent years.

 Unlike some dissident groups, the Moderate Opposition demonstrates respect for
 existing Cuban institutions. It opposes violence.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald