Castro discusses increased ties to U.S.

HAVANA -- President Fidel Castro signed baseballs, handed out cigars and flower bouquets, and discussed increased ties with the United States in a meeting Monday with two Republican legislators who want to lift a ban on U.S. travel to Cuba.

Sen. Larry Craig and U.S. Rep. Butch Otter, both of Idaho, "are pushing very hard to lift the travel restrictions," said Craig spokesman Mike Tracy, who attended the encounter with Castro at the Palace of the Revolution. The 22 other members of the trade and cultural delegation were also present, Tracy said.

Their meeting with Castro took place as the Bush administration announced it would freeze the bank accounts of companies controlled by the Cuban government or Cuban nationals that sell Americans illegal travel packages to the communist island.

Craig told reporters Saturday he thought the travel ban would be lifted by next year. He spoke after Idaho delegation members signed trade and cultural agreements with the Cuban government in front of Ernest Hemingway's former estate outside Havana.

Castro "didn't touch on the most difficult of the issues -- the strained relationship with the U.S. -- but he did talk about wanting to work closer with the U.S. and to have more trade with the U.S.," Tracy said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

The president and the congressmen talked about "everything from bread, to electricity production, to salmon recovery in the Pacific Northwest," Tracy said.

Otter and Craig were on their way out of the country Monday afternoon and were unavailable for comment.

Castro accepted three bottles of red, white and blush wines and a color photo book on Idaho from the delegation, whose meeting with the president capped a four-day visit to the island.

In exchange, the communist leader gave his guests boxes of Cuba's famous cigars and flower bouquets, and signed baseballs and photographs of himself taken with delegation members.

Idaho officials plan to return to the island to take part in a trade exhibition in April and said they hoped to invite Cuban officials to the state to participate in educational and cultural exchanges.

On Saturday, Cuba's food import company, Alimport, signed an agreement to buy $10 million worth of Idaho agricultural products, while the curators of Hemingway's respective houses in Idaho and Cuba inked an accord to exchange information on the late writer's life and work.