HAVANA, Cuba (AP) --Fidel Castro chatted about nutrition and energy prices during a
private meeting with U.S. farm officials who are in Havana for three days of talks on
bringing more agricultural goods to Cuba, those at the meeting said Tuesday.

Cuba wants to sign contracts to buy American farm products worth as much as
$130 million during the talks, which end Wednesday.

The discussions -- and Castro's private meeting with about a dozen Americans
Monday -- underscore the importance Cuba has put on trade with U.S.
companies two years since first exploiting an exception to the U.S. trade
embargo allowing direct sales of American farm products.

By the end of Tuesday, $55.5 million in contracts had been announced,
including several in prices tied directly to the Chicago Board of Trade -- a first
in two years of trade between communist Cuba and American agribusiness.

"This gives equal footing to Cuba as a participant in the market," said Antonio
Martinez, of law firm Martinez Bass & Associates. He attended the day's
sessions.

Castro "didn't talk about politics, not one thing," Seth Hammett, Democratic
speaker of the Alabama state House of Representatives, said of the Monday
night meeting. He said the meeting lasted for more than three hours.

"He talked about the rising cost of energy and how that affects the rising cost of
food," said Hammett. "He talked about the different nutritional values of wheat."

Other Americans in Cuba for the contract talks that began Monday said they
were told more meetings with the Cuban president were likely.

Among contracts signed Tuesday was one for nearly $7 million worth of corn
from FC Stone, of Des Moines, Iowa, which represents 750 grain cooperatives
across the United States.

Cuban officials said contracts signed Tuesday with prices tied to the Chicago
Board of Trade were: nearly $7 million worth of corn from FC Stone, of Des
Moines, Iowa, which represents 750 U.S. grain cooperatives; $25 million in
soy and soy derivatives from Cargill Inc., of Minnetonka, Minnesota; and
$13.5 million in wheat, corn and soy flour from Archer Daniels Midland, of
Decatur, Illinois.

Cuban officials say the communist country has bought more than $500 million in
U.S. goods in the last two years. The first shipment, $300,000 in chicken parts,
arrived from Gulfport, Miss. on December 16, 2001.

Nearly 250 representatives of 147 American agricultural businesses, port
authorities, supermarkets and other related enterprises are in Havana for the
talks.

All sales are in cash because the U.S. law allowing the sales prohibits American
financing.

There was no media access to Castro's meetings with the Americans. His elder
brother, 79-year-old Ramon Castro, was at meetings Tuesday with fellow
rancher John Parke Wright, of J.P. Wright & Co. of Naples, Florida.

"We love the American people, and we wish them luck," Ramon Castro said of
the growing business between his country and American agribusiness.

Wright, who has visited Cuba several times in recent months, said he had gone
horseback riding with the elder Castro at the Nina Bonita farm in western Cuba
to see the estimated 500 head of dairy cattle his company shipped here.

American food companies' interest in doing business with Cuba has grown
despite tightened restrictions on the island by the U.S. government, including
stepped-up enforcement of rules on American travel.

"We support free trade all over the world, and we support Cuba's access to
American products," said Lew Batchelder, senior vice president at Archer
Daniels Midland. "It is only logical that Cuba and the United States trade with
each other."

ADM is the No. 1 seller of U.S. farm products to Cuba in the last two years,
contracting to sell more than $152 million -- not including Tuesday's deal or
others that could emerge during the talks, company officials said.

Cuba first used the food sales law in late 2001 to replenish its food reserves
after Hurricane Michelle caused widespread damage. It previously had balked
at using the law in protest of the restrictions on American financing for the sales.

Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.