GENEVA (AP) --- Reversing course on Cuba for the first time since 1991, the U.N. Human Rights Commission today voted down a U.S.-proposed resolution to keep the island nation under special scrutiny for another year.

"This is the victory of reason,'' Cuban delegate Alfonso Martinez said after the 19-16 vote, calling it a "victory over inflexibility and lack of tolerance.''

Eighteen countries abstained from the vote.

Several which abstained last year decided to reject the resolution today. They included Russia, Pakistan and a number of African nations. Uruguay and Chile, who last year voted in favor, abstained.

The U.S. delegation leader, Nancy Rubin, refused to comment on the vote.

Cuban delegation leader Carlos Amat Flores said many countries had recognized that "Cuba deserves the space it asks for.''

"A series of signals,'' including Pope John Paul II's visit to Cuba in January, have demonstrated that Cuba is opening up, he said.

In a report to the commission last month, special investigator Carl-Johan Groth lamented continuing human rights abuses in Cuba, including persecution of dissidents and bans on free speech.

But his report also placed blame on the United States, saying its long-running embargo "contributes to the rigidity of the system currently in place.''

Last year, the commission voted 19-10, with 24 abstentions, to keep Cuba under special scrutiny, as it has done each year since 1991.

© 1998Associated Press