HAVANA -- American farmers are pressing Congress to ease the
                  40-year-old U.S. embargo against Cuba to allow them to sell food to the
                  Communist-run island.

                  They want to export rice and wheat to Cuba, which for them is an untapped
                  and badly needed market.

                  The farmers are backing legislation that would lift the ban on the sale of food and
                  ease export controls on the export of medicine to the Caribbean island.

                  The legislation has passed votes in committees of both the House and Senate but has yet to go
                  before either of the full chambers of the U.S. Congress.

                  Similar legislative initiatives to do away with restrictions on food and medicine sales have failed
                  in the past when they reached a final vote.

                  The farmers say the U.S. administration is guilty of exercising a double standard by backing trade
                  with Communist China while opposing moves to ease sanctions with Communist Cuba, which
                  imports about $700 million of food per year.

                  Cuba guards against "false expectations"

                  The legislation the farmers support would permit exports of food and medicine
                  to Cuba so long as the federal government does not subsidize them.

                  The President of the Cuban National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcon, welcomed
                  the proposal. "The idea, the motivation, the direction is a very positive one and
                  we would welcome it," he said.

                  Cuban Foreign Ministry spokesman Alejandro Gonzalez described the
                  legislation as "a step in the right direction."

                  "We are watching all of these initiatives," Gonzalez said. "We
                  understand that although they are initiatives aimed in the right direction ... we
                  also must not have false expectations."

                  Hopes are even slimmer for a total lifting of the embargo, he said.

                  Similar initiatives failed in the past, he said, because of "the extreme right" and
                  members of Congress who represent Florida, home to the majority of Cuban
                  Americans in the United States.

                  Bill would affect future embargoes

                  The farmers say that for ordinary Cubans a deal could mean more food and
                  better quality food for less. Rice, a Cuban staple, could be bought from the
                  United States instead of China.

                  Cuban-American groups strongly oppose the legislation, saying that easing U.S.
                  sanctions will help the dictatorship of President Fidel Castro.

                  The legislation was attached to an annual appropriations bill for the Agriculture
                  Department and would require the president to obtain congressional approval for
                  future embargoes of food and medicine.

                  Last year the Clinton administration lifted sanctions on exports of food and
                  medicine to three other countries listed by the U.S. government as terrorist states
                  -- Iran, Libya and Sudan -- but federal law prohibited the administration from
                  including Cuba.

                  Opponents of the move say Cuba will not be able to afford U.S. food unless the
                  U.S. Agriculture Department subsidizes it. But farm groups insist that Cuba may
                  save enough in shipping costs by buying American food to make up for the lack
                  of federal aid.

                   Havana Bureau Chief Lucia Newman and The Associated Press contributed to this
                   report.