By ANA RADELAT
 Special to The Herald

 WASHINGTON -- An expected showdown on Capitol Hill over the sale of food and
 medicine to Cuba was put on hold late Tuesday when members went home before
 taking up the question. Instead debate bogged down over proposed changes to
 the dairy program.

 The House and Senate conference committee will discuss the Cuba issue after
 reconvening this morning; the likely result: new restrictions on trade with Havana.

 Plagued by low market prices and a drop in exports, U.S. farm groups have
 opened a new debate on the effectiveness of U.S. economic sanctions against
 Cuba and other nations that are off-limits for U.S. agricultural sales.

 The farm lobby, led by Midwestern grain producers, insist that restrictions on
 trade hurt the American family farm and the citizens of nations under sanction,
 but do little to weaken the power of despotic rulers.

 But critics of the farm lobby's efforts, led by the Cuban American National
 Foundation and Cuban-American lawmakers, say Cuba is too poor and the
 island's credit is too shaky for there to be much trade.

 CANF Chairman Jorge Mas has accused the American Farm Bureau Federation
 of ``perpetrating a hoax'' on American farmers by ``dangling a supposed quick fix
 to their problems'' through the campaign for sales to Cuba.

 ``Trading with the most anti-American dictator in the world is cheap theatrics and
 amounts to nothing more than the cynical manipulation of farmers' emotions,''
 Mas said.

 The farm lobby estimates that U.S. agricultural sales to Cuba could reach $2
 billion within five years.

 The latest skirmish over Cuba was expected to occur Tuesday night in a joint
 House-Senate conference over the $67 billion agriculture appropriations bill. The
 Senate agreed last month to include a provision in the farm spending bill that
 would allow licensed sales of food and medicines to nations on the State
 Department's terrorist list, including Cuba.

 Earlier this year, as part of his new ``people-to-people'' policy toward Cuba,
 President Clinton allowed the licensed sale of food and agricultural products, but
 restricted them to individuals, private farmers and nongovernmental organizations.

 The Senate-passed measure would allow sales to government entities in Cuba,
 including Alimport, the state agency responsible for food imports.

 The sale of medicine to Cuba has been allowed for years, but restrictions have
 discouraged many pharmaceutical firms from tapping the Cuban market.

 Hopes of lifting the restrictions were dealt a blow Tuesday night when Reps.
 Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, both Miami Republicans, joined
 other lawmakers in persuading House and Senate leaders to present
 congressional negotiators with a $7 billion emergency farm spending package
 that would tie sales to Cuba to free elections, the release of all Cuban political
 prisoners and the legalization of political parties and nongovernmental labor
 unions.

 Other key backers

 Their efforts were backed by Rep. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and other lawmakers
 who oppose easing sanctions on Cuba.

 Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., was seeking to persuade negotiators to
 broaden the Senate's opening to humanitarian sales to hostile nations by
 removing both the requirement that each sale be licensed by the Commerce
 Department and the ban on government financing of such trade.

 The U.S. Chamber of Commerce joined the farm groups Tuesday in lobbying for
 Nethercutt's proposal.

 The U.S. farm interest in Cuba was underscored in May when American Farm
 Bureau Federation President Dean Kleckner and 19 other farm bureau officials
 traveled to the island. Kleckner accused the United States of ``shooting itself in
 the foot'' with its prohibition on farm exports to Cuba.

 The farmers returned the hospitality they received in Havana by hosting several
 events in the United States this summer -- including a reception on Capitol Hill --
 for officials from Cuba's Trade Ministry and Alimport.

 Trip to Havana

 Farm interest in Cuba prompted conservative Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., to lead
 the anti-sanctions fight in the Senate and prompted Senate Minority Leader Tom
 Daschle, D-S.D., and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., to make a quick trip to Havana
 to discuss the possibility of farm sales with President Fidel Castro.

 Moreover, the White House has signaled that it would consider using the
 President's authority to broaden opportunities for farm sales. Despite the White
 House's change in policy this year, there hasn't been a significant food or
 agricultural sale to Cuba due to the president's insistence that trade be limited to
 the island's tiny private sector.

 Cuba imported nearly $800 million in agricultural commodities in 1998, mostly
 from Europe and Canada, and says it could save on shipping costs if it were able
 to buy the same products from the United States. American farmers expect Cuba
 to purchase wheat, soybeans, rice, corn, meat and poultry from U.S. producers if
 trade with the island is liberalized. The final bill will be considered by the House
 and Senate later this week.

                     Copyright 1999 Miami Herald