WASHINGTON -- Cuban President Fidel Castro on Tuesday angrily rejected a proposal by a leading exile group to send U.S. government food and medical aid to the island while keeping a trade ban in place.

Castro blasted the plan, which has been advanced by the Cuban American National Foundation and Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., calling it a ``dirty maneuver'' and a ``rude'' response to Pope John Paul II's appeal for an end to U.S. sanctions that harm Cuba's most vulnerable inhabitants.

``Cuba is not begging,'' the 71-year-old leader said in a four-hour speech broadcast on Cuban state television. ``Cuba is not asking for humanitarian aid. Cuba is asking for the end of the blockade,'' he said, referring to the 36-year U.S. ban on trade with the island.

Castro said the proposal, which has not been formally introduced in Congress, requires that the federal donations be distributed under ``humiliating'' conditions, akin to forcing Cubans to ``lick the boots of those who are stabbing you with a dagger.''

The plan marks the Cuban American National Foundation's first policy initiative since the death in November of its founder and chairman, Jorge Mas Canosa. Sources close to the lobby said foundation leaders were eager to reassert a presence in Washington with a new bill that could undercut rival legislation to allow food and medical sales.

By donating food and medicine, the U.S. government could set requirements for their distribution, advocates said. Such a plan could further empower the Roman Catholic Church -- a likely distributor -- and improve the lives of political prisoners and their families without allowing actual trade with Cuba, which many see as a first step toward normalized ties.

Marc Thiessen, a spokesman for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which Helms chairs, said Castro would be hard-pressed to justify his refusal of free food to a needy population. He said the authors would proceed to draft a bill for Congress, and predicted the aid would eventually flow.

``Looks like we struck a nerve,'' said Thiessen, who returned last week from a 10-day trip to Cuba. Castro, he said, ``is going to have a very hard time explaining this to the Cuban people. There is no way of being on the right side of turning down humanitarian aid.''

Foundation President Pepe Hernandez was in Washington Tuesday, lobbying lawmakers on behalf of the proposal.

``We are moving forward with our aid proposal and have sustained talks today with our friends in Washington in order to advance this initiative,'' said foundation spokesman Fernando Rojas. ``Our proposal is about values and about reaching out to help the people of Cuba who are victims -- not of the U.S. embargo -- but of Castro's tyranny.''

The proposal has caused a rare rift among Cuban-American leaders. The three Cuban-American members of Congress all rejected the plan, saying it is unnecessary and confusing, and invites criticism of the embargo.

But foundation leaders insist the proposal is the best way to seize the public relations offensive and underscore that Castro is responsible for Cubans' misery.

Foundation leaders also voiced hope that the plan would thwart growing support for bills by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Rep. Esteban Torres, D-Calif., to authorize the direct sale of food and medicine. That bill has nearly 90 co-sponsors in the House, and is backed by influential business groups including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The Clinton administration said last week that the foundation proposal merited a closer look.

Asked about Castro's refusal of such aid Tuesday, State Department Spokesman James Foley said it ``would to a large degree indicate where the responsibility lies, to the extent there are problems with food shortages or medicinal shortages in Cuba.''

``It proves, not only as we've said all along, that the problems in those areas that exist in Cuba are the product of the dysfunction of the Cuban economic system,'' Foley said. ``But that Mr. Castro was also refusing the goodwill of the international community to help the Cuban people deal with those problems.''