WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 -- Cuba will not withdraw the diplomat
           linked to an espionage investigation, despite an order from the
          United States that he leave the country, Cuban officials said.

          The diplomat, identified as José Imperatori, had been linked to an
          American immigration official, Mariano M. Faget, who was arrested on
          Thursday and charged with espionage. Mr. Faget was arrested, the
          authorities said, after he gave a Cuban-born New York businessman
          false information that American officials had fed him about a Cuban
          intelligence agent's plan to defect to the United States.

          Mr. Faget is a senior official in the Miami office of the Immigration and
          Naturalization Service.

          A spokesman for the Cuban Special Interests section, Luis Fernández,
          confirmed that the Cuban government would not withdraw the official.
          Mr. Fernández said the diplomat would remain to testify and prove the
          espionage accusation false.

          Mr. Fernández said that Mr. Imperatori and another Cuban official, Luís
          Molina, had met with Mr. Faget in Miami on separate occasions. He said
          the two had spoken to Mr. Faget on immigration issues and on Mr.
          Faget's desire to visit Cuba someday. Mr. Fernández said that Mr.
          Imperatori had never tried to recruit Mr. Faget or to get sensitive
          information from him.

          "The contacts with this man were public and completely open," Mr.
          Fernández said.

          James P. Rubin, the spokesman for the State Department, said the
          expelled Cuban diplomat had been "declared persona non grata," and
          must depart the country by 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.

          "It would be highly unusual for a state to refuse to remove a diplomat
          under these circumstances," Mr. Rubin said. "Under the Vienna
          Convention on Diplomatic Relations, Cuba must either recall the diplomat
          in question or terminate his functions."

          Should the diplomat not leave the country, Mr. Rubin said, he would lose
          diplomatic privileges and immunities and become subject to the laws of
          the United States.

          The United States and Cuba do not have formal diplomatic relations;
          they are represented in each other's country by an interests section, under
          the flag of Switzerland.