By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

              WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush said Monday he intends to suspend for
              another six months a law that would let Americans sue people using U.S. property
              confiscated after Fidel Castro took power in 1959.

              The legislation, enacted in 1996, gave the president authority to waive or enforce the
              provision at six-month intervals.

              Former President Clinton exercised the waiver authority since the law was
              approved, and Bush's action follows the same pattern.

              Bush was asked at a picture-taking session if he intended to issue the waiver. ``I
              do,'' he said simply, without elaboration. The deadline for him to act is Tuesday.

              Bush's decision suspends for six more months the Title III provision in the 1996
              Helms-Burton law that allows any American whose property was seized in Cuba
              after Castro took power in 1959 to sue anyone who uses the property.

              Letting that provision take effect would have angered European allies whose citizens
              and companies could face lawsuits.

              Bush announced his decision in advance of a trip to Europe later this week.

              Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
              Committee and an author of the law, had been sharply critical of Clinton's past use
              of the waivers.

              Many analysts were looking to Bush's move to see if it signaled any change in the
              U.S. stance toward Cuba.

              The State Department lists 5,911 U.S. firms and citizens whose property was
              nationalized without compensation by the Cuban government, mostly in the 1960s.