WASHINGTON -- Miami's Cuban-American Congress members used the House floor Wednesday to defend the U.S. embargo on the island, warning that Fidel Castro is still an enemy of America.

``Despite the end of the Cold War, Castro continues to espouse a hard line . . . proclaiming `socialism or death,' ranting about a final reckoning with the United States, and punishing any Cuban who advocates genuine political or economic reform,'' said Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Miami Republican.

He also said those who advocate easing the sanctions do not understand that provisions already exist to send medicine and other humanitarian aid to the island.

Diaz-Balart and fellow Miami Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen spoke during a period of nondebate when some members were given five minutes each to talk on the topics of their choice.

Ros-Lehtinen advocated several anti-Cuba provisions, which could reach the House floor today, that would ``further tighten the noose on the Castro dictatorship while protecting American interests.''

They include reducing foreign aid to any country that helps Cuba finish its Juragua nuclear power plant; creating a reporting mechanism on implementation of the 1994 immigration accords; and requiring that the administration periodically give Congress the names of companies and people under investigation for violating the part of the Helms-Burton law that denies U.S. visas to foreign corporations that traffic in illegally confiscated American property in Cuba.

``The Clinton administration's enforcement of this section of Helms-Burton has been shameful, as only a few companies have been sanctioned despite evidence that dozens of companies are in violation of this section,'' Ros-Lehtinen said.

Diaz-Balart also charged that the Department of Defense was preparing an assessment of Cuba's military capabilities that could cause the State Department to recommend removing the island from the government's Terror List.

The so-called pariah list, which includes Iraq, Syria and North Korea, prevents the United States from doing certain business with countries that it considers state sponsors of international terror.

But State Department sources said that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had no intention of recommending that President Clinton remove Cuba from the list.