Senate unlikely to kill Cuba measures: Reid

By Susan Cornwell and Jeremy Pelofsky

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate's majority leader signaled on Tuesday that provisions to ease limits on trade and travel to Cuba were likely to be approved because they were attached to a larger bill that he did not want to stall.

"I'm not wild about some of the Cuba provisions in this bill myself," Senator Harry Reid, a Democrat, told reporters. "There are a couple of those that I don't like very much, but it's not enough to bring the bill down, in my opinion."

With Congress facing a deadline on Friday to pass the massive $410 billion bill to fund many government operations, an aide to Reid told reporters it did not appear that foes of loosening sanctions on the communist-run island had enough votes to strip the provisions.

The House of Representatives last week approved the bill with the Cuba provisions. Supporters say since Fidel Castro, who seized power in a 1959 revolution, retired last year due to poor health, it is time to review decades-old policies that have shunned the island 90 miles off the Florida coast.

The proposals do not lift the overall U.S. embargo on Cuba, but would prohibit the Treasury Department from enforcing Bush administration rules requiring payment of cash in advance for agricultural sales to Cuba.

They also would allow Americans with relatives in Cuba to travel there more frequently and for longer time periods.

Republican Senator Mel Martinez, who represents Florida which is home to many fiercely anti-Castro Cuban exiles such as himself, said he may offer an amendment to strip the provision or rally enough opposition to block the bill from passing.

In the Senate, 60 votes are often required to clear procedural hurdles and move to passage. While Democrats control 58 Senate seats, Martinez said he already has support from two Senate Democrats: Bill Nelson, also from Florida, and Robert Menendez of New Jersey.