Some wonder if the creation of a committee on a transition to democracy in Cuba is just a public relations ploy for the president.

By JUAN O. TAMAYO

WASHINGTON - White House plans to create a Presidential Cuba Transition Commission at a ceremony today have skeptics wondering whether the Bush administration is really ratcheting up its pressures on the island to change or is simply trying to quell Cuban-American criticisms in the run-up to presidential elections.

''We still dont know whether this commission will try to make the transition happen or just get the government ready for when and if it happens,'' said a Cuban American in Washington invited to the panels unveiling.

One issue unlikely to be changed is the U.S. policy toward Cuban migrants intercepted at sea. Although many Cuban Americans have been lobbying strongly for a relaxation of the wet-foot/dry-foot policy, senior Bush administration officials have repeatedly signaled there will be no change.

With U.S. military and security forces already stretched thin around the world, Washington does not want to risk an immigration crisis with either Cuba or Haiti, top government officials repeated this week.

STRING OF COMPLAINTS

Leaks on the White House panel on Cuba came amid a long string of complaints by Cuban Americans that Bush, despite expectations that he would put additional pressures on President Fidel Castro to move toward democracy, has taken few tangible steps toward that goal.

National security advisor Condoleezza Rice is expected to brief members of Congress who support Bush policies on Cuba beginning at 8:45 a.m., while other U.S. officials will brief about 100 leading Cuban Americans invited to a closed-door session at the Old Executive Office Building next to the White House. A public announcement is expected to follow.

LOCAL REPUBLICANS

U.S. Reps. Lincoln and Mario Díaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, South Florida Republicans, were invited to the Rice briefing but declined all comment Thursday.

Just what the presidential panel could do in terms of planning for Cubas transition to democracy was unclear, since most of the key elements of U.S. policy toward the island, including the trade embargo and travel ban, were strengthened by the 1996 Helms-Burton Act.

''We have to ask, is this a public relations thing or is it real,'' said one congressional aide.

If the presidential panel is indeed designed to quiet complaints from Cuban Americans in Florida and New Jersey -- states critical to Bushs election in 2000 and reelection next year -- it did not appear to be getting much early support.

Leading Cuban Americans and Washington officials who monitor Cuba policy complained they were not consulted on the creation of the panel and that Bush administration officials had declined to answer their queries when rumors of the panel began circulating here last week.