BY ANA RADELAT
 Special to The Herald

 WASHINGTON -- Republican congressional leaders Tuesday sought an end to a
 stalemate over a massive farm spending bill by drafting a package that continues
 current restrictions on the sale of food and medicine to Cuba and other ``rogue''
 nations under U.S. economic sanctions.

 To gain support from the farm lobby, which had spearheaded efforts to ease trade
 barriers, GOP House leaders added $1.2 billion in supplemental emergency aid to
 farmers who suffered from drought and floods. The proposed package would boost
 disaster assistance to more than $8 billion.

 Jose Cardenas, director of the Washington office of the Cuban American National
 Foundation, said efforts to beat back farm-group attempts to ease sanctions on
 Cuba showed that ``the exile lobby is alive and well.''

 The leadership proposal was drafted after talks between House and Senate
 negotiators collapsed twice last week over Cuba and dairy provisions.

 Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo., sponsor of the anti-sanctions effort in the Senate,
 Tuesday condemned the move to craft a final farm bill without a House-Senate
 conference and urged colleagues to reject the package if it reaches the Senate.

 ``Congress is treating farmers as if a shot of short-term aid can solve all of
 agriculture's problems. . . . [Farmers] also need long-term access to world
 markets.''

 The Senate had approved a provision in its $67 billion farm bill that would allow the
 sale of food and medicine to Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, North Korea, Syria and
 Cuba and prohibit the president from banning such sales under future sanctions.

 But Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Miami Republicans,
 asked House Republican leaders to insist that sales to Cuba be tied to three
 conditions: free elections, the release of political prisoners, and the establishment
 of nongovernmental trade unions and independent political parties.

 Senate negotiators, however, refused to place special conditions on Cuba. When
 the 15 House negotiators prepared to vote on the issue, Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla.,
 chairman of the House Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee, promptly put the
 conference on hold.
 

                     Copyright 1999 Miami Herald