CUBA TRAVEL U.S.

Democrats differ on Cuba policy at Iowa debate

DES MOINES, Iowa (Reuters) - Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and other Democratic presidential candidates disagreed on Saturday during a debate in Iowa on whether the United States should immediately end a 4-decade-old embargo on Cuba.

At a "black and brown" debate focused on issues of interest to minority voters, Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd backed an immediate end to the U.S. embargo but other candidates differed on how quickly it could be ended without changes in the Caribbean island nation's government or human rights policies.

"I think we make a huge mistake by not normalizing relations with Cuba," Dodd said, adding the embargo had benefited the communist government established in 1959 by Fidel Castro.

The polite debate, which featured few policy disagreements or confrontations, came barely one month before Iowa kicks off the state-by-state battle to pick the Democratic and Republican nominees for the November 2008 general election.

Clinton, the front-runner among Democrats in national polls, and rivals Obama, John Edwards and Joseph Biden said relations could not be normalized without a significant change in Cuba.

"I think that has to be a precondition," the New York senator said of an improvement in Cuban human rights policies. She said there was "a tremendous pent-up desire" for fundamental democratic reforms among the Cuban people.

Obama, an Illinois senator, said he would favor immediately loosening some aspects of the embargo, including restrictions on visits to Cuba and remittances to families. "Those two shifts in policy would send a signal that we can build on," Obama said.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who is Hispanic, said, "The embargo has not worked" but that lifting it would require some immediate democratic reforms in Cuba.  Continued...