Cuba confirmed Thursday that it has punished a number of tourism industry officials, but denied that the cases involve corruption and denied that the wife of ousted Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina was among those disciplined.

The French news agency Agence France-Presse reported Thursday that it had confirmed the dismissal of Andres Soberon, head of the hotel division at the state-run Cubanacan, Cuba's largest tourism enterprise.

Soberon was not accused of corruption but was removed two weeks ago for ``not exercising sufficient control,'' AFP quoted a Cubanacan official as saying, without further explanation.

The Herald reported Tuesday that a crackdown on corruption within Cuba's $1.8 billion-a-year tourism industry had led to several arrests and dismissals at government-run enterprises, according to sources in Havana.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Alejandro Gonzalez called those reports ``complete exaggerations'' Thursday but confirmed that ``disciplinary measures'' had been applied against an unspecificed number of employees at one state firm, the Rumbos travel agency.

He said the sanctions were for ``failures of discipline'' but ``are not linked to corruption'' at Rumbos, a state firm that operates dollar-priced tours, entertainment centers and cafes.

Asked about reports of the dismissal of Rumbos President Luis Manuel Castillo and the arrest of armed forces and Interior Ministry officers linked to tourism, Gonzalez said he ``could not go into details. I don't know the extent of this measure.''

Gonzalez denied a report that Robaina's wife, Maria Elena Garcia, had been fired as head of Rumbos' international relations department. Garcia ``had nothing to do with the measures taken in Rumbo,'' he said.

Robaina, who was dismissed last month and replaced by President Fidel Castro's top aide, Felipe Perez Roque, is ``home, without any problems, taking a few vacation days while awaiting new assignments,'' Gonzalez said.

Reports of major personnel changes at the Foreign Ministry in the wake of Robaina's departure are false, the spokesman said, adding that there was ``nothing going on outside what's normal in the rotation system.''

Gonzalez said he knew nothing about Cubamor, a Mexican travel agency that was accused in a recent dispatch by Cuba's state-run Prensa Latina news agency of ``stimulating the so-called sexual tourism'' in Cuba.

Cubamor, whose name combines Cuba and amor, Spanish for love, has been arranging travel packages for Mexican tourists that include the services of young prostitutes, according to foreigners living in Havana.