By ANA RADELAT
 Special to The Herald

 WASHINGTON -- House and Senate negotiators trying to hammer out their
 differences on a massive $67 billion farm bill stumbled Wednesday on a dispute
 over easing sanctions against the sale of food and medicine to Cuba.

 Negotiations were put on hold after Republican leaders of the House-Senate
 conference were unable to win majority support for a proposal that would only
 allow sales to Cuba if the Havana government frees all political prisoners;
 legalizes all political parties and labor unions; and schedules internationally
 supervised elections.

 A provision in the Senate's version of the farm bill would rule out bans on the sale
 of food and medicine to all nations subject to future U.S. economic sanctions and
 allow licensed sales of food and medicine to nations currently on the State
 Department's terrorist list, including Cuba.

 But Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, both Miami Republicans,
 and other lawmakers persuaded the House and Senate leadership to try to
 impose the conditions on Cuba, over the strong objections of farm groups who led
 the sanctions-easing campaign.

 Ros-Lehtinen said relaxing sanctions on Cuba is ``the wrong thing to do at the
 wrong time'' and would not solve the problems of the American farmers.

 ``It's a total myth that the problems of the farm community have been created by
 pariah states like Cuba,'' she said.

 Farm groups have been pushing for access to new markets, however.

 ``We want Cuba left in. If it's taken out, we're going to be very unhappy about it,''
 said Mary Kay Thatcher, a lobbyist for the American Farm Bureau Federation.
 

                     Copyright 1999 Miami Herald