From News Services

The House voted yesterday to lift restrictions on travel to Cuba by U.S. citizens, which sponsors said would be a first step toward ending the communist nation's
economic isolation and hastening democratic reforms.

"What we've done is erect our own Berlin Wall preventing the free travel of Americans," said Rep. William Delahunt (D-Mass.). "It's time to tear the wall down."

The 240 to 186 vote in favor of lifting the restrictions came on an amendment by Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) to the $32.7 billion fiscal 2002 spending bill for the
Treasury Department, Postal Service, White House and other agencies. The House passed a similar amendment last year, but it died in the Senate.

The House also rejected, 227 to 201, the full repeal of the trade embargo against Cuba, which was eased last year to allow the sale of food and medicine.

Democrats have said they would continue to press for broader easing of the sanctions, which they say have failed to weaken President Fidel Castro. But many
conservative Republicans and the staunchly anti-Castro Cuban exile community oppose any such move, saying commerce with the United States would reinforce
Castro's rule.

U.S. citizens can travel to Cuba now only by obtaining a special license from the Treasury Department, which limits access generally to journalists, academics,
government officials and people on humanitarian missions.

President Bush this month irked the Cuban exile community by suspending for another six months the right of U.S. firms to sue foreign companies doing business with
expropriated properties in Cuba.

Following a similar action by President Bill Clinton, Bush extended the suspension of part of the Helms-Burton law, which was passed in 1996 after Cuban MiG
fighters shot down two small planes flown by Miami-based Cuban exiles. But he also ordered stricter enforcement of the trade embargo.

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