A high-level delegation of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest business federation in the country, plans to make its first visit to Cuba this year.

The four-member delegation, led by Chamber President Tom Donohue, has asked for a U.S. Treasury Department permit to make the trip, sources familiar with the request told The Herald.

It would be the first such trip by the top authorities of the Chamber, a Washington-based institution that represents three million companies in their dealings with the U.S. and foreign governments. The Chamber has long opposed unilateral U.S. sanctions on Cuba and several other countries.

Reached Friday at a weekend business conference in Key Largo, Donohue confirmed that the group plans to make the trip ``in the next couple of weeks or months.'' He said he hopes to get ``the approval of our government, and to be welcomed by the Cuban government.''

``Our objectives would be to meet with Cuban leaders, people involved in business, and to discuss what might be done in expanding trade in goods, medicines and tourism.

``We believe that unilateral sanctions don't work, and that our government should carefully consider removing the dozens of sanctions we have around the world,'' Donohue said. ``They don't achieve our objectives and they are detrimental to U.S. interests.''

Donohue would not elaborate, but a source familiar with the plans said the delegation is likely to meet with President Fidel Castro and dissidents who are considered ``socially acceptable'' to the Cuban government.

U.S. business representatives have stepped up pressure in recent years to end the four-decade U.S. trade embargo on Cuba, arguing that European and Canadian investors are setting up huge operations on the island in anticipation of a post-Castro era, at the expense of U.S. firms.

Skeptics say the purported invasion of European and Canadian investors in Cuba is an illusion. They cite figures from the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council showing that less than $1 billion of the $6.2 billion in foreign investment announced since 1990 has actually arrived in Cuba.

Ambiguous government regulations, a paralyzing bureaucracy and a known reluctance by Castro to further open the economy make Cuba a much riskier investment than China or Vietnam, critics say.