KINGSTON, Jamaica -- Prime Minister P. J. Patterson's visit to Cuba this week is a high-profile signal of the Caribbean's expanding ties with the island, despite U.S. efforts to isolate President Fidel Castro's government.

Patterson led formal discussions with Castro in Havana on Thursday, the first full day of a four-day visit to the island by a delegation of more than 100 Jamaican officials and businessmen. Patterson later planned to tour historic Old Havana, visit the recently inaugurated free trade zone at Berroa on Havana's outskirts and receive the Order of Jose Marti, the highest decoration Cuba awards to foreigners.

In an interview Wednesday, hours before boarding an Air Jamaica charter flight to the Cuban capital, Patterson repeated what he told President Clinton at a May 10 Caribbean summit in Barbados -- that Cuba is a Caribbean country that should be integrated not only with its neighbors, but with the rest of the Americas.

Patterson, who spoke to Clinton as chairman of the 14-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM), said the Caribbean leaders made it clear to Clinton in a luncheon discussion that they all think ``every effort should be made to reintegrate Cuba as a full member into the hemispheric family.''

Patterson said Clinton responded that he had to operate within ``legal constraints,'' which includes abiding by the so-called Helms-Burton law, which imposes sanctions on foreigners who invest in property confiscated from U.S. citizens, but noted there are some areas in which he could act by executive order.

``It is our hope that he will use that as a way of making possible, on an incremental basis, steps which will result in a reopening'' toward Cuba, Patterson said.

`Work toward a solution'

``It's our view,'' Patterson added, ``that if the United States can find a way of resolving differences with the Soviet Union, which no longer exists, or Russia . . . Vietnam . . . China . . . Albania, there is no reason why we should not work toward a solution of the problems relating to Cuba.''

This is an issue on which Patterson and opposition leader Edward Seaga are in rare agreement.

Seaga's first act as prime minister in 1980 was to expel the Cuban ambassador, an action followed three years later by breaking diplomatic relations with Havana. But he said this week that he doesn't see where ``U.S. policy [of isolation] has had the desired effect.'' An opening to Cuba would ``make it more difficult for Castro,'' he added.

Seaga said any country has a right to choose a particular ideology, but ``what we're against is exporting it.''

Patterson, whose visit is the first by a Jamaican head of government to Cuba in 20 years, comes amid a much different global atmosphere than when the late Prime Minister Michael Manley visited in 1977.

As a proponent of ``democratic socialism'' and a political ally of Castro, Manley incurred the wrath of Washington. While Manley's visit was largely a demonstration of political solidarity, the emphasis of the Patterson delegation is on trade and economic cooperation.

Patterson joins parade

This time, apparently, Washington is only watching in resignation as Patterson becomes the second in a current parade of Caribbean prime ministers trekking to Havana.

Prime Minister Keith Mitchell of Grenada paid a visit in late April and Prime Ministers Owen Arthur of Barbados and James Mitchell of St. Vincent and the Grenadines are both reported to be planning visits soon.

All 14 CARICOM members, plus Haiti -- whose membership is pending -- either have full diplomatic relations with Cuba or are in the process of establishing them. Cuba also belongs to such regional organizations as the Association of Caribbean States and the Caribbean Tourism Organization.

A Jamaican Foreign Ministry paper presented to Parliament last week suggested a sense of urgency in consolidating relations with Cuba before a normalization of U.S.-Cuba relations.

It also indicated concern about antagonizing Washington, noting that the ``small states of the Caribbean, in particular, will be obliged to undertake a careful balancing act in the protection of national interest.''

Resumed link in '89

Jamaica first established diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1972 along with Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados. After a six-year break from 1983 to 1989, relations were resumed following Manley's return to office, but at a much lower profile than in the 1970s.

Jamaica opened a consulate in Havana last year with a nonresident Jamaican ambassador. Patterson indicated an agreement upgrading the consulate to an embassy and the posting of a resident ambassador in Havana would be signed before his return Sunday.

Air Jamaica, the island's national airline, has announced that on June 15 it will begin service to Havana three times a week from its new Caribbean hub in the north coast resort city of Montego Bay.

There is already limited trade between the two islands, which are separated by only about 50 miles of the Caribbean Sea. SuperClubs, the all-inclusive Jamaican resort chain, has operated a resort in Varadero for several years.

Patterson dismissed the prospect of sanctions against Jamaican investors under Helms-Burton, saying Jamaica considered the legislation without legal validity in international law.

This report was supplemented with information from Herald wire services.

Copyright © 1997 The Miami Herald