By Pascal Fletcher
HAVANA, May 27 (Reuters) - Brazilian Foreign Minister Luiz Felipe Lampreia, signalling an apparent toughening of policy towards communist Cuba, said on Wednesday he had held an unprecedented meeting in Havana with a well-known Cuban dissident and human rights activist.
Some foreign diplomats said the meeting may have led to Lampreia not being received by Cuban President Fidel Castro, although he held talks with other senior government officials during a three-day official visit to the Caribbean island.
Although official Western visitors sometimes brave government displeasure to meet dissidents, Lampreia's meeting with human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez was highly unusual for the foreign minister of a major Latin American state.
Lampreia told a news conference in Havana he had talked for half an hour on Tuesday at the Brazilian ambassador's residence with Sanchez, a moderate opponent of Castro's government who heads the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation.
The Brazilian minister announced a number of bilateral cooperation agreements, including a $15 million dollar medium- term credit to finance Cuban imports of Brazilian foodstuffs.
Lampreia and his Cuban counterpart Roberto Robaina announced the creation of a government-to-government mechanism to discuss cooperation on a range of issues, including economic relations and human rights.
The Brazilian minister said the issue of human rights was a "heartfelt and priority policy'' for Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, who had himself been exiled and jailed during the right-wing military dictatorship in Brazil.
"Yes, I met with Elizardo (Sanchez)... because this issue is a high priority for Brazil,'' the Brazilian minister said.
His comments and the meeting with Sanchez clearly indicated that Brazil intended to give increased attention to human rights in its relations with Cuba, following a public call by Cardoso last month for democratic changes on the island.
Lampreia said the Brazilian government hoped to engage Cuba in a programme of cooperation on human rights, similar to a programme which it had established with China.
In the past, many of Cuba's Latin American neighbours, distancing themselves from the hostile U.S. policy towards Havana, have preferred to play down the human rights issue.
Lampreia made clear that his country opposed the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba, adding that Brazil supported what he called the "gradual re-insertion'' of Cuba into regional cooperation and consultation organisations.
But, asked if he felt Cuba could immediately return to the Organisation of American States (OAS), from which it was suspended in the early 1960s at Washington's instigation, Lampreia said conditions for this "still do not exist.''
He made clear he was referring to the Cuban government's failure to adopt democratic reforms, in line with standards adopted by the OAS in a 1991 resolution.
Lampreia said Brazil supported Cuba's entry to the Latin American Integration Association, or ALADI, a system of tariff preferences which groups several Latin American states.
But he had still not been received by President Castro, who over the last few days received other visiting foreign ministers from North Korea and Malaysia. Lampreia was due to leave Cuba later on Wednesday.
15:33 05-27-98