HAVANA (Reuters) -- Cuba said on Monday a U.S.-Cuban baseball game
                  and concert showed the two nations could have "normal, fruitful, peaceful"
                  exchanges and a U.S. senator called for an end to U.S. restrictions on travel
                  to the island.

                  A senior Cuban official, Ricardo Alarcon, told a news conference that
                  similar events bringing together Cuba and the United States could take place
                  in the future, provided they were organised without political hostility and with
                  respect.

                  In a separate news conference in Havana, visiting U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy,
                  Democrat of Vermont, urged the U.S. government to lift restrictions on
                  travel to and from Cuba so that bilateral exchanges could become normal
                  and commonplace.

                  Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly, hailed as "excellent" the
                  baseball exhibition game played on Sunday between the Baltimore Orioles
                  and a Cuban national team. The game, won 3-2 by the Orioles, was the first
                  time a U.S. major league baseball team had played in communist-ruled Cuba
                  for 40 years.

                  "Unique" was the word he used to describe a joint concert given on Sunday
                  night, after the baseball game, by more than 80 U.S. and Cuban musicians in
                  what was the biggest U.S.-Cuban musical exchange since Fidel Castro's
                  1959 Revolution.

                  "Both of these (events) reflect the possibility that can exist between two
                  countries to have normal, fruitful, peaceful exchanges when they are based
                  on mutual respect for each other's sovereignty and independence," Alarcon
                  said.

                  Leahy, who watched Sunday's baseball game and had dinner with President
                  Fidel Castro on Sunday night along with another U.S. Democratic senator,
                  Jack Reed of Rhode Island, described the historic sports event in Havana as
                  "a good thing."

                  But he did not expect that by itself it would lead to any immediate significant
                  improvement in U.S.-Cuban relations.

                  He strongly urged an end to the U.S. embargo's restrictions on travel to
                  Cuba by U.S. citizens. "It just doesn't make sense, it is an anomaly, more
                  than that, it is beneath the dignity of our great and good country," he said.

                  Washington maintains a 37-year embargo on Cuba and seeks to pressure
                  Castro into change by isolating him.

                  Speaking to reporters at the Havana residence of the head of the U.S.
                  Interests Section in Cuba, Leahy also criticised the Cuban government's
                  jailing earlier this month of four leading political dissidents. He said such
                  actions by Havana made it more difficult for people like him to press for a
                  more open U.S. policy toward Cuba.

                  Alarcon's comments earlier reflected Cuba's longstanding position that
                  relations between the two countries could never be considered normal while
                  the U.S. embargo remained in place.

                  "The blockade continues," Alarcon said, making clear he considered this
                  would inevitably remain a constraint on efforts to develop the bilateral
                  relationship, whether through sports or other activities.

                  Before Sunday's game, the U.S. government said its decision to allow the
                  event did not mean it was engaging in "baseball diplomacy" with Cuba's
                  communist rulers. Such an interpretation would be a "gross misconception,"
                  Washington said, adding the exchange was simply "people to people
                  contacts."

                  Referring to Washington's "ping pong diplomacy" initiative of the early 1970s
                  which opened up U.S. relations with China, Alarcon said: "I am sure
                  something similar is going to happen with Cuba...I don't know when."

                  "We're not opposed to a normal relationship...We are ready to wait
                  whatever time is necessary," he added.

                  Alarcon was confident that a follow-up game between the Orioles and
                  Cuba, scheduled for May 3 in Baltimore, would take place as agreed with
                  the U.S. authorities.

                  Some right-wing U.S. politicians and anti-Castro Cuban exiles have fiercely
                  opposed the playing of the games.

                  "My impression is that it would not be possible to stop this second game
                  from taking place," Alarcon said.

                     Copyright 1999 Reuters.