By George Gedda
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, July 17, 1999; 4:29 a.m. EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- They have almost nothing in common: Cuban President Fidel Castro, who calls capitalism a ``brutal, inhumane system,'' and the head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world's largest business federation.

Thomas Donohue, who serves as the chamber's president and chief executive, spent six hours dining and talking with Castro this past week and said Friday he found him ``very smart and very strong in his convictions.''

Donohue wants the chamber to take advantage of the limited concessions Castro has offered to capitalism in recent years: family owned restaurants and other modest entrepreneurial ventures.

``In this small way, the process of change in Cuba has begun and we ought to seize the opportunity to spur it on.''

Speaking to reporters after his return from Cuba, Donohue said the chamber will be working with Cubans over the next few weeks to flesh out the details on building relationships with both independent companies and public corporations.

Donohue's three-day visit was the first by a chamber of commerce president to Cuba since the 1959 communist revolution. In addition to Castro, he also met with other top government officials along with dissidents and church leaders.

He said he showed up late for his meeting with Castro because he did not want to cut short his meeting with the dissidents.

Donohue said Castro, whose motto is ``socialism or death,'' acknowledged that some aspects of an economy work better when carried out by the private sector.

The one common view of Castro and Donohue is their mutual disdain for the U.S. embargo against Cuba. Castro has called the embargo criminal and Donohue says it does no good. As proof, he noted that the embargo against Cuba has been in place for almost 40 years and has yet to dislodge Castro.

As Cuba was undergoing an economic free-fall earlier in the decade, Castro, in a radical departure, allowed Cubans to operate family owned and operated businesses. For example, private restaurants are permitted so long as there are no employees outside the family and the number of chairs is limited to 12.

More than 200,000 Cubans took advantage of the opening at its peak, but taxes and other disincentives have lowered the number to fewer than 140,000.

``Beneath the surface, an ideological spark has been ignited,'' Donohue said. ``The government has yet to decide whether to nurture it or snuff it out.''