HAVANA (CNN) -- A U.S. baseball delegation arrived in Cuba late Friday
                  to work out the rules for possible exhibition games in Cuba and Baltimore.

                  "We think baseball is a great facilitator. It brings people together, and that's
                  the underlying purpose of our visit," said Peter Angelos, owner of the
                  Baltimore Orioles team, which is seeking two exhibition games with the highly
                  rated Cuban national team. "We appreciate the hospitality of the Cuban
                  government and our own government's support of the two games," he said.

                  Private talks with Cuban sports officials were planned for Saturday. And the
                  delegation was tentatively scheduled to attend a Cuban baseball game on
                  Sunday, authorities said. Angelos hopes to arrange one game in Cuba and
                  one at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore.

                  Also in the delegation of roughly a dozen are Sandy Alderson, executive vice
                  president of operations for Major League Baseball, and Tom Garofalo,
                  director of charity efforts in Cuba for the Baltimore-based Catholic Relief
                  Services.

                  President Bill Clinton announced he would let the Orioles play a Cuban team
                  as part of an initiative to increase relations between the American and Cuban
                  people while maintaining the three-decade U.S. economic embargo against
                  the communist government. The plan would let more Americans send money
                  to Cubans, offer direct mail service and expand direct charter flights
                  between the two countries.

                  Havana has condemned Clinton's announcements as a publicity stunt
                  intended to stem growing domestic and international opposition to the
                  "economic war" on Cuba.

                  But the government did not reject the details of some measures. And the
                  speaker of Cuba's parliament, Ricardo Alarcon, hinted the baseball
                  exchange could proceed if funds go to a neutral cause like Central American
                  hurricane victims. The U.S. preference is that any money go to Catholic
                  Services' Cuban counterpart, Caritas.

                  The exhibition games, first proposed in 1996, were earlier rejected by the
                  State Department because of the trade embargo. No major league team has
                  played on the island since the Brooklyn Dodgers held spring training in
                  Havana in 1947.

                  Most Cubans, including President Fidel Castro, are avid baseball fans, and
                  an exhibition game here would receive wide public backing.

                  "We'd love to see our squad measure up against these major league teams,"
                  fan Andres Correoso said in Havana's Central Park, where Cuban baseball
                  enthusiasts gather daily to discuss the sport. Last weekend Alarcon brought
                  up another important negotiation point for the two countries to work out --
                  wood or aluminum bats.

                  Cuban officials may be wary of sending the country's best baseball players
                  to the United States for a game. The last two times the Cuban national team
                  played in the United States, a player defected and signed with a major
                  league club.

                       The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.