CHICAGO (AP) -- Illinois Gov. George Ryan is touting his five-day
                  mission  to Cuba as a successful step toward better relations, despite
                  Clinton administration criticism.

                  Ryan, who returned Wednesday, said "the groundwork has been laid" for
                  ending the trade embargo imposed by the United States in 1962 to punish
                  the communist regime of Fidel Castro. Ryan, a Republican, is a staunch
                  opponent of the trade ban.

                  His meeting with Castro began Tuesday evening and lasted into the early
                  hours on Wednesday.

                  Clinton administration officials criticized the trip, the first visit by a U.S.
                  governor since the 1959 revolution that brought Castro to power. State
                  Department spokesman James Rubin said that visiting the Cuban leader
                  should be avoided "to not give the impression that anyone supports the
                  oppression that he has visited on his people."

                  Ryan said he was surprised by Rubin's comments and had received no
                  previous State Department opposition to a meeting.

                  The governor said he "never forgot for a second" that Castro was head of
                  a communist dictatorship, and said the trip -- which also brought $1 million
                  in humanitarian aid -- embodied "what America is really all about."

                  In a speech at the University of Havana on Wednesday morning with Castro
                  looking on, Ryan said he had come to Cuba "to build bridges." He said his
                  delegation of government and business leaders was leaving "with the
                  knowledge that those bridges are firmly in place."

                  Raudel Medina Alfonso, an ailing 7-year-old Cuban boy, was allowed to
                  return with the group. The child suffers from portal hypertension, a
                  potentially fatal disease that produces high pressure in blood flowing from
                  several organs to the liver. Cuban doctors don't have the facilities to treat
                  him.

                  The delegation's return flight also included the boy's mother, Idalmis Alfonso,
                  32. The boy's father, Raul Medina, 51, said he was grateful for the gesture.

                  "He doesn't seem too bad now, but if the condition is not taken care of he
                  can have complications in the future," said Medina, who remained in Cuba.

                  The boy spent Wednesday night in Chicago, and will be brought to UNC
                  Hospitals in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for surgery, UNC Health Care
                  officials said. The hospital and doctors say they will waive their fees.

                    Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.