While proponents said on Wednesday that they remained confident of victory,
                 there were jitters about the outcome. Representative Tom Ewing, an Illinois
                 Republican, has said "I would not be surprised" if the proposal was quashed.

                 Potentially a landmark change in U.S. relations with the communist island, the
                 proposal will die unless lawmakers reach agreement before Congress adjourns
                 in early October.

                 U.S. economic sanctions were imposed on President Fidel Castro's government
                 four decades ago when Cuba began accepting Soviet aid. American farm and
                 business groups say the embargo failed to isolate Cuba and now is a futile Cold
                 War relic.

                 "The mood seems to be for change now," said a spokesman for Representative
                 George Nethercutt, a Washington state Republican and a leading sponsor of
                 loosening food and medicine sanctions.

                 Attempts to exempt these items from unilateral U.S. embargoes were thwarted at
                 the last moment in 1998 and 1999 by hard-core opposition. The proposal, which
                 would benefit North Korea, Iran, Libya, and Sudan as well as Cuba, enjoyed a
                 strong start this year, but differences between the Senate and the House of
                 Representatives must be resolved.

                 U.S. farmers eager to boost sales

                 Farm groups say Cuba, 90 miles (145 km) from Florida in the Caribbean, would
                 be a natural market for U.S. goods. Havana spends about $750 million a year on
                 food imports, some of it purchased under favorable credit terms.

                 House Republican leaders, often harshly critical of Castro, brokered a
                 compromise between Nethercutt and anti-Castro lawmakers that would allow the
                 sales but ban any government or private U.S. financing of food exports to
                 Havana. It also would write current travel restrictions into law. Both provisions
                 are unpalatable to advocates of closer relations.

                 Senators voted in late July for a food and medicine exemption that allows private
                 financing, such as involvement by U.S. banks and insurers.

                 House and Senate negotiators may not meet until next week, if then, to work on
                 the $75 billion agriculture funding bill that includes the troublesome Cuba
                 language. Although time is short, staff workers said, discussions could conclude
                 speedily if Republican leaders intervened.

                 "We assume we're going to be able to negotiate the original agreement we got in
                 the House," said a press aide to Texas Republican Tom DeLay, No. 3 in the
                 House leadership.

                 But farm groups and a sizable number of farm-state lawmakers prefer the more
                 straightforward Senate language. Some of them say flatly that the House language
                 is unacceptable, creating the possibility of stalemate.

                 "Leadership -- they are very unwilling to go farther than ... the deal," a House
                 staff worker said.

                 A farm lobbyist said the House language was so restrictive it would bar simple
                 steps like a U.S. bank's acceptance of a letter of credit as part of a food sale to
                 Cuba. "We're all saying we want the Senate version," she said.

                 Bush-Gore race in Florida a factor

                 With public opinion polls showing a tight race in Florida, there was concern
                 among trade groups that the Cuba language might be sidelined as too risky. Cuban
                 Americans are a potent political bloc in Florida.

                 "Neither side wants to do anything that might affect Florida" if a small shift in
                 votes could tip the election, a trade group official said.

                 Pedro Alvarez Borrego, head of the Cuban food-importing agency Alimport, was
                 in the United States this week to meet farm and agribusiness leaders in Texas and
                 Illinois. In a telephone interview with Reuters, he said sanctions hurt U.S.
                 producers more than Cuba.

                 "In practice, the blockade is imposed on U.S. producers and the U.S. people," he
                 said through an interpreter. "Cuba can trade with the rest of the world. However,
                 the U.S. farmers ... cannot trade with Cuba."

                 U.S. public sentiment has shifted toward closer relations with Cuba, in part
                 because of child shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez. Alvarez said that just as "the
                 U.S. people were a significant factor in having Elian returned to Cuba," they
                 would spur an end to the "absurd blockade."