Saturday, December 12, 1998; 9:03 a.m. EST

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Cuba's foreign minister plans to visit Mexico next week in an apparent attempt to improve relations recently strained by comments made by Fidel Castro.

Mexico recalled its ambassador from Havana on Dec. 4 and demanded an explanation after the Cuban president, speaking two days earlier at a meeting of Latin American leaders, criticized Mexico's relations with the United States.

Mexican newspapers quoted Castro as saying that Mexico had turned its back on Latin American nations and that its children knew more about Mickey Mouse than about their national heroes. The Cuban Embassy issued a statement Dec. 5 saying the comments were misinterpreted.

Mexican Foreign Secretary Rosario Green told reporters that her Cuban counterpart, Roberto Robaina, would visit Friday. She expressed confidence the row would soon be forgotten.

``The relations and the friendship between Cuba and Mexico are very solid,'' she said.

Castro's close relationship with Mexico dates back before the Cuban revolution. Castro and his small rebel band trained in Mexico for a year before sailing to eastern Cuba in 1956, launching the revolt that would topple dictator Fulgencio Batista two years later.

Despite pressure from the United States, Mexico never broke relations with Cuba, even after most other Latin American nations did so following Cuba's expulsion from the Organization of American States in 1962. Cuba, in turn, never tried to foment a leftist revolution as it had in other countries in the region.