By Frances Kerry
HAVANA, Dec 2 (Reuters) - A senior U.S. official said onTuesday that as part of their cooperation on migration issues, Washington and Havana have exchanged information on how to stop smuggling of illegal migrants.
Speaking after Cuba and the United States held the latest in a regular series of bilateral talks on migration issues, U.S. delegation head John Hamilton said the United States had proposed and held a seminar for Cuban immigration authorities in September to show them examples of false documentation used by human smuggling rackets.
Cuba planned to hold a similar seminar in exchange, said Hamilton, who is assistant secretary of state for Inter-American Affairs.
The exchanges of information and the wider discussions the two countries have on migration issues are among the few areas where Washington and Havana cooperate.
Cuba and the United States, which have no diplomatic ties, have had hostile relations since the 1959 revolution that brought President Fidel Castro to power.
But Tuesday's talks were the eighth round of talks they have held to review implementation of bilateral migration accords reached in September 1994 and May 1995.
Those accords, which have been largely successful, were aimed at halting a flow of boat people from the communist-ruled island to the United States.
Hamilton said Tuesday's talks had been a "full comprehensive, constructive and frank discussion of all the matters related to the implementation of the accords.''
The Cuban side, led by parliamentary president Ricardo Alarcon, had been due to give a separate news conference after the talks, but did not do so. No reason was given.
Under the May 1995 accord, Washington agreed to repatriate Cubans intercepted by U.S. authorities trying to emigrate illegally to the United States, whether by sea to Florida or crossing to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in southeast Cuba.
In September 1994, Washington had also agreed to raise the number of visas it granted Cubans to 20,000 a year.
Hamilton said this targetted number had been met in each of the three years since the agreement and added the U.S. side believed the "accords are achieving their central purpose of encouraging safe, legal and orderly migration between our two countries.''
Hamilton said one issue that arose on Tuesday that was of concern to both governments was the use of the Guantanamo Bay U.S. naval base to process people intercepted by U.S. authorities, and the fact this could act as a magnet to draw people to the base.
Hamilton said Cubans should not have any illusions that crossing to Guantanamo base was a way of emigrating to the United States.
23:34 12-02-97