WASHINGTON -- Nearly 300 Cubans from Miami and other U.S. cities gathered Tuesday in the nation's capital to support a bill that would end the embargo on food and medicines to Cuba.

``You are here in the spirit of the finest democratic traditions of the United States, to tell lawmakers what you think and to talk to them person to person,'' Rep. Esteban Torres, D-Calif., told the visitors.

Torres is the chief sponsor in the House of a bill that would permit American producers of food and medicine to sell their products directly to Cuba. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., sponsored the equivalent bill in the Senate.

The crowd's loudest applause was for Miami travel entrepreneur Francisco Aruca, who gave Torres a document in support of the Torres-Dodd bill, signed by 12,000 residents of Miami-Dade County.

``Much strength, commitment and courage is needed to do what this man has done,'' Torres said.

Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., said he has seen ``a change in attitude'' among Cubans in Miami and recalled his efforts eight years ago to lift the trade embargo against Cuba.

A native of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, Serrano represents the South Bronx.

``I remember that only 10 Cubans showed up at one of my earliest meetings'' on the subject, Serrano said. ``Those who phoned to congratulate me concealed their identity. Now, the support is open'' and callers give their full names, he said.

Later, the visitors split into small groups to visit lawmakers and lobby for passage of the bill.

``We visited about 50 members of Congress,'' said Silvia Wilhelm, executive director of the Cuban Committee for Democracy (CCD). ``This has been a historic day, a total success, because never before had so many people from Miami gathered to support the lifting of the embargo on medicines and food to Cuba.''

A plane chartered by the CCD carried 157 anti-embargo activists from Miami.

Four representatives who were not receptive to the visitors' ideas -- Bob Menendez, D-N.J.; Peter Deutsch, D-Fla.; Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, both Miami Republicans -- held their own press conference.

``Every year they come here with the same story and go back defeated, because the United States Congress knows very well the kind of dictatorship that exists in Cuba,'' Ros-Lehtinen said.

She rejected the claims of those who blame the United States for Cuba's economic woes, saying that the humanitarian aid Cuba received from the United States in the past four years surpasses the aid it received from the rest of the world.

``Besides, 38 licenses were issued in the same period by the Treasury Department to companies willing to sell food and medical equipment to Cuba,'' she said.