BY TIM JOHNSON

  WASHINGTON - The White House succeeded in stripping language to weaken the U.S. embargo of Cuba from a massive spending bill making its final passage through Congress, a Miami legislator said Thursday.

  Republican Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart credited President Bush and his threat last week to veto the entire $397 billion spending bill if legislators dismantled any part of the four-decade-old embargo.

  ''President George W. Bush's support for Cuba's freedom is extraordinary,'' Diaz-Balart said in a statement.

  In a Feb. 4 letter to four key legislators, White House Budget Director Mitchell Daniels warned that Bush considers the embargo of Cuba ''vitally important'' and might veto any bill that tinkered with efforts to lessen economic sanctions of the Fidel Castro regime.

  Opponents of the embargo on Capitol Hill, whose ranks are growing, have won majority votes for three consecutive years to lift a ban on most U.S. travel to Cuba -- but the Republican House leadership has just as consistently derailed the proposals.

  The spending bill contained at least one provision related to enforcement of the embargo.

  Sen. Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, had included a provision in the Senate version of the spending bill that would have relaxed restrictions prohibiting most U.S. citizens from travel to Cuba.

  His provision would have given anyone applying for a license to travel to Cuba automatic approval if the Treasury Department delayed beyond a 90-day window in ruling on an application.

  A spokesman for Dorgan, Barry Piatt, said clashes over Cuba policy on Capitol Hill would resume later this year.

  ''Both chambers have expressed their will on numerous occasions that relations with Cuba get better. In every case, in back-room deals, Republican leaders have stripped these provisions, thwarting the will of both chambers,'' Piatt said.

  A House staffer knowledgeable about the struggle over the Cuba language said pro-embargo legislators fought a temptation to ''cut a deal,'' permitting some weakening of the embargo.

  ''With the president's support, we're winning. We don't have to capitulate,'' he said.