WASHINGTON -- (AP) -- The Clinton administration gave its qualified approval
 Sunday to House-approved legislation that would ease the U.S. trade embargo
 against Cuba.

 White House chief of staff John Podesta said the administration welcomed the
 legislation as long as its benefits go to the Cuban people and not President Fidel
 Castro's government.

 Two amendments approved by the House last week would restore virtually
 unlimited travel to Cuba as well as allow the export of food and medicine to Cuba.
 They were included in legislation to finance the Treasury Department in the next
 fiscal year.

 ``We want to try to work with Congress to see if we can implement that policy of
 creating . . . more people-to-people contacts, which the travel amendment goes
 to, and to provide food and medicine to the people of Cuba,'' Podesta said on
 ABC's This Week.

 He cautioned, ``We want to do it in a way that doesn't support the Castro
 government. So I think we can work something out.''

 The House's third-ranking Republican said he is ashamed of his colleagues' vote
 to ease the embargo against Cuba and its ``ruthless, murdering dictator.''

 Majority Whip Tom DeLay of Texas believes that Castro would use the food and
 medicine to increase repression in Cuba.

 ``I think it's really unfortunate, and frankly, it's the first time I have really been
 ashamed of the House of Representatives,'' DeLay said on Fox News Sunday.

 Instead of helping the Cuban president, he said, Congress should have been
 ``turning down the screws on this dictator that kills people, has killed American
 citizens over international waters, has put people in jail for being dissident.''

 DeLay said Democrats provided the important support, even though Republicans
 Jerry Moran of Kansas and Mark Sanford of South Carolina sponsored the two
 amendments.

 ``Overwhelmingly, the majority of the Republicans voted against this,'' DeLay said.
 ``All those that believe in appeasement and have sympathy toward Fidel Castro
 come from the Democrat side.''