Cuban officials said they know President Bush will veto easing of the travel ban to Cuba, but they're sure most Americans support such a change.

BY NANCY SAN MARTIN

CONGRESS

Cuban officials Friday said the U.S. Senate vote on easing the ban on travel to Cuba confirmed that most Americans want to improve relations with Havana but acknowledged the initiative may be blocked short of becoming law.

''It's new proof that both [Congress] chambers are in favor of a political change, just like the majority of North American society,'' Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque was quoted as saying by the Spanish EFE news agency.

But Roque acknowledged that President Bush has threatened to veto the measure if it is approved by the full Congress. The president, in fact, recently vowed to tighten the restrictions on travel to the island.

`CORRUPT MINORITY'

''I don't know what new trick President Bush will use to avoid [change],'' Roque said. ``I guess he could veto, ignoring the public opinion of his country to favor groups from the small and corrupt minority in Miami.''

National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcón said that while the measure approved by the Senate Thursday likely will not survive, ``either way, events like this . . . [are] indicative of the will of the majority of North American legislators in the case of Cuba.''

Alarcón added that Bush was being pressured ''from the bottom'' by the growing demands for an end to Washington's ''hostile and war-like politics'' toward Cuba, EFE reported.

The Communist Party newspaper Granma did not mention the Senate vote in its editions Friday. Several similar measures have been approved by the Senate and House, but GOP leaders always blocked approval.

MIAMI REACTION

In Miami, Spanish-language talk radio shows barely mentioned the Senate vote. Cuban-American groups opposed to any easing of U.S. sanctions expressed confidence that Bush would veto the measure while those that support an easing of restrictions praised the Senate vote.

''The Senate has taken the side of both Cubans and Americans who overwhelmingly support an end to travel restrictions,'' Ricardo Gonzalez, president of the Cuban Committee for Democracy, said in a written statement.

The U.S. House last month also voted to ease travel restrictions as part of its version of a $90 billion bill to fund the U.S. Transportation and Treasury department programs. House and Senate leaders must still work out differences between their two bills.

The Treasury Department estimates that about 160,000 Americans, half of them Cuban-Americans visiting family members, traveled to Cuba legally last year.