He suggests medical training program for poor Americans

 BY PAUL SHEPARD
 Associated Press

 HAVANA -- Fidel Castro said Sunday that support for the 38-year-old U.S. trade
 embargo against Cuba was beginning to ``wear down'' as American business
 seeks new markets.

 In a meeting with members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Castro also
 suggested that Cuba could extend a free medical training program to poor
 American students who would return home to practice in poor regions.

 He also voiced support for the work of black members of Congress but said he
 was disenchanted with elected politics in general and American presidential
 politics in particular.

 Castro, 73, said he found hope in recent congressional moves to lift U.S.
 restrictions on the sale of food and medicine to Cuba.

 The House is expected to debate an agricultural bill this week to license food and
 medicine sales to Cuba as long as the sales are not subsidized by the federal
 government.

 The caucus, 36 voting black House members, has long supported lifting the trade
 sanctions. In recent months, some Republicans and business groups have joined
 them in seeking to open new markets. The vice president of the U.S. Chamber of
 Commerce visited Cuba last week.

 ``It's interesting that some people on the other side of the aisle are looking at
 ending the blockade,'' Castro told the lawmakers through an interpreter. ``I find
 that very significant. I suppose that sometimes some issues wear down. It is a
 positive.''

 On the 2000 presidential campaign, Castro said: ``I really disagree with both
 candidates for president.'' Then he joked: ``I'm going to join the 50 percent of
 Americans who will go fishing on Election Day.''

 The medical training offer came after Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said parts
 of his Mississippi Delta district have so few medical personnel that its infant
 mortality rate is second in the United States, behind Washington, D.C.

 Castro had told the representatives about Cuba's program of sending doctors to
 poor areas around the Caribbean and in Africa. He suggested a new project to
 provide free medical training to 10 to 12 American students.

 Thompson said he liked the idea and would study it.

 Wearing his trademark olive green uniform, Castro spoke extemporaneously on a
 wide range of subjects into the early hours of Sunday.

 He expressed gratitude to the black caucus for supporting the return to Cuba of
 6-year-old Elián González.

 Castro said he doubts the current crop of world leaders offers much hope for
 finding solutions to crushing global issues.

 ``I've talked to thousands of Latin American and European politicians and
 American politicians, and I'm always amazed at the amount of nonsense they
 speak,'' he said.

 Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., chairman of the black caucus, invited a Cuban
 delegation, including Castro, to attend the caucus' annual legislative conference in
 September in Washington.

 Castro said he doubts he could get a visa, but Clyburn said he would try to get an
 exemption for the Cubans under a cultural exchange provision in international
 travel law.