By Pascal Fletcher
HAVANA, March 17 (Reuters) - A group of Cuban dissidents said on Tuesday they would seek to revive a coalition of opposition groups and individuals which dispersed after a crackdown by the island's communist authorities in early 1996.
Leonel Morejon Almagro, a dissident lawyer, told a news conference in Havana the idea was to create a "a minimum consensus of all those in opposition in favor of democracy".
He said the movement would be called the Concilio Cubano, the same name used by an umbrella group of small and scattered dissident and illegal anti-government organizations which tried to hold a national meeting in Cuba on February 24, 1996.
On that occasion, Cuban security forces thwarted the planned meeting by detaining or warning off dozens of members of the group.
On the same day, a Cuban MiG fighter shot down two small U.S. planes, killing four Cuban-Americans and aggravating already tense U.S.-Cuban ties.
Morejon, who was accompanied by other dissidents at the news conference in Havana's Marianao district, said the intention of the revival of the Concilio Cubano was to try to "unite all those who think differently from the government".
The goal was to try to forge a "Cuba of peace, a new Cuba ... without a foreign hand, but also without the hand of totalitarianism and the single party", Morejon said.
Also present at the meeting were leaders or representatives of dissident groups called the People's Democratic Alliance, the Liberal Democratic Party of Cuba and others.
Morejon said he and other dissidents would form a self- styled National Secretariat of Concilio Cubano to draw up a formal agenda for a national meeting to be held in October.
The secretariat planned to write to President Fidel Castro, National Assembly head Ricardo Alarcon and Justice Minister Roberto Diaz Sotolongo to seek formal permission to hold the Concilio gathering, which would discuss topics like human rights, politics, the economy and social issues.
The objective was to "pressure the government in a civic manner so that it will recognize the opposition".
"The government will have two alternatives...either put a large number of people in prison or...sit down and talk with the opposition", Morejon said.
Cuba's constitution establishes a one-party system and makes the Communist Party the sole legitimate political force.
Using a penal code which punishes opposition activity, the Cuban authorities often prosecute and jail anti-government dissidents. Morejon himself served a 15-month jail sentence for disrespect after the 1996 break up of the last Concilio Cubano.
Morejon said the new grouping would be open to all opposition figures, both inside and outside Cuba. He mentioned well-known dissidents on the island like Elizardo Sanchez, Gustavo Arcos and Oswaldo Paya. "We hope that these opposition figures will participate," he said.
He added that the recent pardon by the government of some 300 prisoners, including political detainees, in response to a plea for clemency from Pope John Paul II, was a positive sign.
But he went on: "A pardon is not enough for us".
21:08 03-17-98