By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS

WASHINGTON, May 13 — The United States ordered the expulsion of 14 Cuban envoys today for "inappropriate and unacceptable activities," a common
diplomatic reference to spying.

The mass expulsion of Cuban diplomats is among the most sweeping ever undertaken by Washington in a long history of tit-for-tat ousters. It comes as the Bush
administration is studying ways to punish Havana for its recent imprisonment of scores of government critics and human rights advocates.

The State Department notified the Cuban government this morning that seven diplomats from Havana's mission at the United Nations in New York, and seven officials at Cuba's de facto embassy in Washington, were being given 10 days to leave the country.

"In response to certain inappropriate and unacceptable activities, the United States has decided to take strong action," said Philip T. Reeker, a State Department
spokesman. The Cuban diplomats in Washington were declared persona non grata, requiring their prompt departure, Mr. Reeker said.

The United Nations envoys, under a separate procedure, were ordered to leave for actions "deemed to be harmful to the United States."

Mr. Reeker declined to discuss the charges against the Cubans, referring questions to the F.B.I. Bureau officials did not respond to requests for comment.

"I think you're all familiar with the record of espionage by the Cuban regime against the United States," Mr. Reeker said. "It's a long record."

Officials at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, which functions as an embassy in the absence of diplomatic relations, did not respond to requests for comment.

Administration officials privately insisted that the expulsions were independent of an overall review of Cuba policy following the crackdown on dissidents and the swift execution of three would-be ferry hijackers.

But administration officials have said for weeks that they were considering a wholesale reduction in the Cuban diplomatic presence in the United States as part of a
menu of possible actions to be unveiled by the White House in coming days. Among the other options are curtailing cash payments to Cubans from their relatives here, restricting Cuban immigration, placing new curbs on already limited trade and enhancing United States government broadcasts to the island.

John S. Kavulich, the president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, said the expulsions might be part of a drive by hard-liners in the administration to
toughen the American position toward Havana and thwart moves in Congress toward greater liberalization.

Without discounting the possibility that the envoys engaged in spying, Mr. Kavulich, whose council advises businesses interested in investing in Cuba, said, "From
what I know, they're far more political casualties."

There was no immediate reaction from Havana, but American officials braced themselves for retaliatory steps. In recent weeks, Cuban officials have complained
bitterly about contacts between the top American diplomat in Havana, James Cason, and various dissident leaders, many of whom have since been sentenced to long prison terms.

The State Department refused to identify the Cubans being expelled, except to say that they did not include the chiefs of mission in Washington or at the United
Nations.

The Associated Press said the third- and fifth-highest officials at Cuba's United Nations mission, Adrián Francisco Delgado González and Alfredo José Pérez Rivero, respectively, were among those told to leave.

The United States and Cuba have spied aggressively on each other throughout the four decades since the Cuban revolution. American intelligence operations were
dealt a severe blow in the early 1990's from a counterespionage campaign by Mr. Castro that left Washington with few human sources on the island, government
officials acknowledge.

In recent years Cuba has been more successful in deploying agents, even placing some in some top United States posts.

The most prominent of these was Ana B. Montes, a Pentagon analyst with influence over Cuba policy, who was sentenced last year to 25 years for spying for
Havana. In 2000, a senior United States immigration official, Mariano Faget, was convicted of passing secrets to a Cuban diplomat, and a circle of Cuban spies
known as the Wasp Network rattled South Florida two years earlier with efforts to penetrate exile groups and a military base.

Washington expelled four Cuban diplomats in November in response to the Montes scandal. Irritated by the restrictions placed on Mr. Cason and other diplomats in
Cuba, the administration has also compelled Cuban diplomats here to seek State Department approval for routine purchases or hires, saying it insists on parity of
treatment.