WASHINGTON (AP) -- The United States and Cuba will hold migration talks on
                 September 21 in New York, the State Department said Friday.

                 The talks will be held three weeks after the State Department lodged a protest
                 complaining that Cuba was barring the departure of Cubans with U.S. passports,
                 forcing would-be immigrants to attempt high-risk escapes by boat.

                 Cuban National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon, a confidante of President
                 Fidel Castro, will head the Cuban delegation. William R. Brownfield, a deputy
                 secretary of state, will lead the American side.

                 Migration talks normally have been held roughly at
                 six-month intervals but no such discussions have
                 been held since December. The State Department
                 has blamed the Cubans for the long delay.

                 On August 28, department officials summoned the chief of the Cuban diplomatic
                 mission, Fernando Remirez, and handed him a diplomatic note complaining of
                 Cuban non-compliance with a 1994 agreement governing migration issues.

                 At the time, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright accused Cuba of "increasingly
                 obstructing the safe, legal and orderly migration of individuals from Cuba."

                 The U.S. note said 117 Cubans from 57 families had been denied exit permits by
                 the Cuban government in a recent 75-day period. The United States had granted
                 all of them visas.

                 Cuba says a 1966 U.S. law encourages Cubans to undertake dangerous crossings
                 to south Florida because it ensures that those who arrive will not be repatriated.