Cuban officials said the 622.7-foot cargo vessel, M. V. Ikan Mazatlan was expected
                 to arrive at the Port of Havana Sunday morning. It was carrying 24,000 metric tons
                 of corn - the first direct commercial export of agricultural products from the United
                 States to Cuba since 1963.

                 Representatives of American agribusiness and some U.S. officials are delighted by
                 the shipment, hoping it will lead to more American trade with Cuba and thus
                 eventually create a new market for U.S. food and other exports.

                 "This is a bridge we need to build," Illinois Gov. George Ryan, whose state
                 produced some of the corn, said Friday after the shipment was loaded in the United
                 States. The shipment also includes corn from Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky,
                 Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin.

                 Pro-embargo Cuban exile groups also say the direct sale of American food could
                 chip away at 40-year-old trade embargo, but they think that's a bad thing. They say
                 the sanctions are necessary to punish Fidel Castro's communist government.

                 When the boat shoved off in New Orleans on Friday, George J. Fowler III, general
                 counsel of the anti-Castro Cuban American National Foundation complained that the
                 direct sales of American food would "put money in Castro's pocket."

                 Castro last week called the purchase "a friendly response to a friendly gesture" and
                 said that more purchases would be possible if Washington allowed Cuba to sell its
                 products in the United States.

                 Most trade between the two nations is banned by the 40-year U.S. trade embargo
                 against the island. In an attempt to ease the embargo, the U.S. Congress passed a
                 law permitting the direct sale of American food to Cuba but barring all government
                 and private U.S. financing of such sales.

                 But until now, Cuba has refused to buy "a single grain" of food under the law,
                 saying that the financing restrictions are onerous and that the U.S. government n
                 eeds to do more to either ease the embargo or do away with it completely.

                 After Hurricane Michelle hit Cuba on November 4, destroying crops and thousands
                 of homes, Washington made the unusual gesture of offering to send humanitarian
                 aid to the island.

                 Havana politely declined, but said it would use the opportunity to make a one-time
                 cash purchase of food from American companies under the law to replenish food
                 reserves used up after the hurricane.

                 Agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland of Decatur, Iowa, is among a number of
                 American businesses that are selling food to the island under as part of what
                 Havana says will be a one-time deal.

                 ADM has contracted to deliver to Cuba 96,000 metric tons of food items, including
                 corn, soybean meal, wheat and rice through February. The contracts with the
                 Cuban government have a combined approximate market value of dlrs 14 million,
                 ADM says.

                 In a related purchase from American poultry producers, a shipment of frozen
                 chickens to Cuba is expected to depart later this month.

                  Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.