HAVANA (Reuters) -- Sports officials from political arch-enemies Cuba
                  and the United States announced on Tuesday they had made advances
                  toward staging spring games between a Major League U.S. team and
                  Cuba's national squad.

                  The delegations told a joint news conference in Havana they had reached
                  agreement on the locations and dates for two possible games between the
                  Baltimore Orioles and the highly rated Cuba team, as well as details
                  concerning equipment and umpiring.

                  "We look forward to playing a game against-- I mean with -- the Cuban
                  national side," Orioles owner Peter Angelos said, adding with a smile, "I said
                  'against' because we like to win!"

                  Despite unremitting political hostility between Cuba and the United States
                  since Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution, both nations share a passion for
                  baseball. If the Orioles play in Cuba, they would be the first Major League
                  team to do so since the Brooklyn Dodgers visited during a 1947
                  spring-training tour.

                  Despite the upbeat tone from both sides, however, some potential snags
                  have yet to be removed. Among the most controversial is where the
                  proceeds of the games will go.

                  Washington, which authorized the Orioles to visit and negotiate with Cuba as
                  part of a Jan. 5 packet of adjustments to the long-standing U.S. embargo on
                  the communist-run island, wants funds to go to a nongovernmental charity in
                  Cuba. But Havana wants to send profits to Central American hurricane
                  victims.

                  "There are important areas which are unresolved at this time but which will
                  remain the subject of continuing discussions in the days ahead," the two sides
                  said in a joint communication.

                  Neither side, however, would elaborate on those differences, preferring to
                  stress the areas of agreement, which include the tentative dates of March 28
                  for the first game at Havana's Latin American stadium, and April 3 for the
                  second game at Baltimore's Camden Yards.

                  The two sides also agreed to game rules, umpire nationalities, and the
                  U.S.-style use of wooden bats rather than the aluminum ones preferred in
                  Cuba.

                  Asked if the advance of negotiations also represented a step forward for
                  U.S.-Cuba relations, the vice-president of Cuba's state-run Instituto de
                  Deportes (INDER), Raul Villanueva, said: "Our goal is purely a sporting
                  one."

                  Although many have dubbed the Orioles' talks in Cuba "baseball
                  diplomacy," both sides were keen to play down comparisons with the
                  so-called ping-pong diplomacy between the United States and China, which
                  helped thaw relations between those countries.

                  Angelos said that sporting exchange was different because it was organised
                  on a government-to-government level.

                  Flanked by Major League officials and Orioles star outfielder B.J. Surhoff,
                  Angelos emphasized that the proposed U.S.-Cuba games, which his team
                  first suggested three years ago, were "not connected in any way with the
                  U.S. government."

                  "The Major League and the Orioles have initiated this effort with the
                  intention of making a contribution to bringing our people and the Cuban
                  citizens closer together, and if this leads to an improvement in relations and
                  better people-to- people contacts, certainly the Major League, the Orioles
                  and millions of Americans will be delighted," Angelos said.

                  As for the actual games, Angelos reassured fans that if they occur, the U.S.
                  side would field its best team. "We have a lot of respect for the Cubans, and
                  we will have our work cut out," he said.

                  Outfielder Surhoff said he personally checked the Latin American stadium in
                  Havana and pronounced it fit for a big game. "We walked the field ... to get
                  a first-hand idea of the feel of it," he told the news conference.

                  The 13-member U.S. delegation, which arrived on Friday and attended a
                  local league game with Cuban sports officials this weekend, was due to fly
                  out later on Tuesday.

                   Copyright 1999 Reuters.