Mel Martinez, the cochairman of the Free Cuba commission, plans to resign as U.S. Housing Secretary to seek Bob Graham's Senate seat.

By FRANK DAVIES

WASHINGTON - A special U.S. commission to plan for a post-Castro Cuba faces an urgent task in mobilizing federal agencies, its leaders said Friday after their first meeting. But its work may be set back by the imminent departure of its cochairman, Mel Martinez.

The Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, chaired by Housing Secretary Martinez and Secretary of State Colin Powell, met at the White House on ways to hasten a transition to democracy and to plan federal aid for a future government.

Appointed by President Bush on Oct. 11, the commission plans to issue its report by May 1.

Roger Noriega, assistant secretary of state for hemispheric affairs, emphasized that top officials attended the Friday meeting, including national security advisor Condoleezza Rice, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans.

''This commission is a national undertaking, and this commitment enjoys the full backing of President Bush,'' Noriega said.

But Martinez, the highest-ranking Cuban American in the administration, plans to resign and run for the U.S. Senate seat in Florida being vacated by Bob Graham, according to White House and GOP sources.

Martinez refused to discuss the Senate race Friday, and administration officials said they would not discuss how his departure would affect the commission on Cuba.

Martínez and Noriega, who briefed reporters after the meeting, said the administration was cracking down on illegal travel and remittances to Cuba, with inspections of all flights to the island, and officials were looking for new ways to help Cuban dissidents.

Noriega said the federal government needed a plan ``to ensure that profound and deep political and economic change occurs.''

''A transition could happen at any time, and we have to be prepared to act decisively and agilely,'' Noriega said.

``And there must be no accommodation with the cronies of the old regime that try to cling to power.''

One priority, Noriega said, is to coordinate plans for economic assistance from the Agency for International Development and other agencies with other governments and international organizations.