BY PETER WALLSTEN

  Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, a Democratic candidate for president who has campaigned heavily in Florida for cash and votes, appeared to shift his stance on the trade embargo with Cuba on Sunday, telling a national television audience that he now supports keeping sanctions in place.

  Kerry's remarks, delivered on NBC's Meet the Press, seemed to contradict statements he made during a 2000 interview with The Boston Globe that a reevaluation of the embargo was ''way overdue'' and that the only reason Cuba has been treated differently than China and Russia is the ``politics of Florida.''

  Kerry on Sunday called that ''an honest statement,'' but when NBC's Tim Russert asked whether he endorsed lifting sanctions he replied: ``Not unilaterally, not now, no.''

  The Massachusetts senator, who has met privately over the past year with exile leaders, said Sunday that he would support easing travel restrictions, though he was vague about how to do it and whether he was referring to tourism. He also said he might consider allowing more money to be sent to dissidents.

  ''I think that people traveling in there weakens Castro,'' Kerry said.

 "I don't like Fidel Castro. Some people have cottoned to him in our party and go down and visit. I went to Cuba once and I purposely said I don't want to.''

  Kerry's shift was similar in tone to that of his biggest rival for the Democratic nomination, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, who told The Herald last week that recent human rights abuses by Castro have convinced him that now is the wrong time to end the embargo -- even though his inclination is to ease sanctions as a path to democratization.

  The attention to nuance by the two leading Democrats in the race on what is essentially an issue of higher interest in South Florida illustrates the growing belief among Democratic strategists that they can make a legitimate appeal for traditionally Republican Cuban-American voters in the state that decided the 2000 election and could do the same next year.

  Cuban Americans were decisive in 2000, when more than 8 in 10 of the state's 400,000 Cuban-American voters backed Bush.

  But leading Cuban-American activists recently have criticized what they call the Bush administration's failure to follow through on campaign promises to ratchet up
  pressure on Castro's government -- especially after last month's repatriation of 12 suspected boat hijackers, sent back after the Cuban government agreed to sentence  them to a maximum of 10 years in prison instead of executing them.

  Some elected Republicans and the Cuban American National Foundation have even said they would consider withholding their support from Bush's reelection if his
  administration didn't intensify its focus on Cuba.

  Two of the demands were satisfied this month: the indictment of Cuban pilots who shot down planes flown by Brothers to the Rescue activists in 1996, and technological improvements to TV Martí broadcasting into the island.

  Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation and one of the leading critics of Bush's policies, likened the shifts by Kerry and Dean to that of other high-profile former advocates for lifting sanctions, such as Secretary of State Colin Powell and Vice President Dick Cheney.

  ''We've had eleventh-hour conversions from Cheney, Powell, Spain and Mexico,'' said Garcia in an interview Sunday. ``If John Kerry has seen the light, welcome to the fight.''

  But, he added, "The distinction between Kerry today and George Bush today is that George Bush has the responsibility to act because he's president and Kerry has yet to be tested on the issue.''

  Kerry indicated Sunday that his stance was not dramatically different from that of Dean, who has surged over the past month to surpass Kerry in opinion polls in the key early-primary states. Dean last week chided Castro for imprisoning dissidents and holding ''show trials,'' saying those developments make lessening sanctions
  inappropriate for now.

  Under questioning Sunday, Kerry tried to appease Cuban-American activists while not necessarily recanting an anti-embargo stance popular in farm states such as Iowa, home of the first in the nation presidential caucuses, where business leaders thirst for lucrative new markets in Cuba.

  ''I don't change what I said,'' Kerry said. "But I think we need to move step by step in a way that begins to engage and see what we can do. But I wouldn't just give [Castro] a reward for nothing, no.'