WASHINGTON -- In a rare face-to-face meeting, the top Cuban official in the United States Monday urged U.S. business representatives and consultants to consider ``the enormous possibilities of investment, if we can have normal relations.

``The Cold War is over, and we have no interest in creating tensions,'' said Fernando Remirez, who heads the Cuban Interests section here. In a brief speech, he touted Cuba's accomplishments in health care and education while acknowledging ``major problems and many shortcomings'' in the Cuban economy.

Remirez spoke to about 25 corporate and business association representatives who held a day-long conference on the potential for doing business in the island, two months after the Clinton administration announced changes in policy that allow the restricted sale of medical and agricultural products to Cuba.

Despite Remirez's conciliatory tone and the very small opening in the Cuban market, much of the discussion at the conference focused on the recent crackdown on dissent in Cuba, including the trial of four dissidents sentenced to prison terms Monday.

The top State Department official for Cuba policy, Michael Ranneberger, told the participants after Remirez left that ``the deplorable human rights situation'' in Cuba was one more reason not to reconsider lifting the longstanding embargo on trade with the island.

``There is some wishful thinking that the administration wants to get out from under the embargo, and that's not true,'' Ranneberger said. ``We're interested in more people-to-people contact, not with the Cuban government.''

He said the recent changes were designed to promote more exchanges with the Cuban people, such as the upcoming Baltimore Orioles game in Havana, and ``were not about business.''

Meanwhile, on a tour of Canadian cities, Cuba's Foreign Investment Minister Ibrahim Ferradaz said the island-nation's economy will expand 2.5 percent-to-3 percent this year because of a record number of tourists and increased sugar exports.

Ferradaz is attempting to attract new investment.

``The year 1998 was complicated for Cuba because there were many ups and downs in international markets, with more downs than ups,'' Ferradaz said at a breakfast in Ottawa.

Brushing aside questions about human rights violations, Ferradaz said Cuba's economy grew 1.2 percent in 1998, less than half 1997's 2.5 percent growth. The El Nino weather pattern slashed average annual rainfall in Cuba by 50 percent last year which, along with hurricane Georges, halved sugar exports, Ferradaz said.

Unlike the United States, Canada has had unbroken relations with Cuba and is one of its major trading partners. However, a slight opening is coming for U.S. businesses in Cuba.

The first set of regulations on how U.S. businesses can get licenses to deal with potential buyers in Cuba may come out this week. In a brief interview after his speech, Ranneberger said he was not sure what nongovernmental entities in Cuba could do business with a U.S. company.

Several participants at the conference, including representatives of telecommunications and energy companies, pressed Ranneberger on why U.S. policy allowed extensive trade with China and Vietnam, despite their poor human rights records, and blocked doing business with Cuba.

Ranneberger said there was an important difference: China was much further along in economic reforms, allowing outside companies to provide salaries and benefits directly to workers -- something Cuba refuses to do. And he said ``the simple reality'' is that Congress supports the embargo.

One consultant who advises companies on prospects for U.S.-Cuba relations said in the last year U.S. Treasury officials have made it easier and faster to get licenses to explore business possibilities in Cuba.

``Some of the barriers have been going down,'' said John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. ``Companies are bolder and more vocal about getting and using information.''

Kavulich conceded that even with a license to do business in Cuba for health care products, for example, sales may be limited. He cited a company licensed to do up to $1 million in business that reported sales of about $29,000.This report was supplemented by Bloomberg Business News in Canada.