MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazilian President to Meet Castro in Cuba.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will walk a diplomatic tightrope when he sees his old friend Fidel Castro later this week, trying not to antagonize Washington while balancing his role as a regional leader.

In the nine months since taking office, Silva has made regional integration the centrepiece of his foreign policy, visiting nearly every South American nation or meeting with their presidents in Brasilia.

In the same period, Cuba has come under international criticism because of a crackdown on dissent in March in which 75 Cubans were given prison sentences from six to 28 years.

Silva, a former union official and Brazil's first leftist leader, arrives in Havana Friday for two days of talks with Castro, the 77-year-old communist leader he has known for decades.

A major focus of the trip will be Silva's concern that Cuba does not "remain isolated from the concert of nations" Tilden Santiago, Brazil's ambassador to Havana, told reporters.

"If integration is to be achieved, Cuba cannot be left out," said Mario Marconini, executive director of the Brazilian Center for International Studies in Rio de Janeiro.

Silva will also be testing his country's delicate relationship with the United States, which has had no diplomatic relations with Cuba for more than four decades. The United States is both the largest exporter to Brazil and the largest recipient of Brazilian products.

"If the visit turns out to be nothing more than a gesture to please leftist forces in Brazil and in the rest of world, it will be an empty and meaningless gesture," Marconini said in a telephone interview.

"But if it becomes part of a broader approach to the Hemisphere it could turn into a constructive exercise that should please even the United States," Marconini said.

Cuban dissidents and their supporters have asked Silva to intervene on behalf of 75 activists sentenced to long prison terms after a crackdown this year.

Silva should demand the release of the country's political prisoners, Cuban democracy activist Oswaldo Paya said in an interview published Sunday in the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.

"Brazil should defend an opening in Cuba and a dialogue between the government and the opposition," Paya said.

The Paris-based advocacy group Reporters Without Borders has asked the Brazilian president to press for the release of the 26 independent journalists among the 75 jailed dissidents.

While recognizing Silva's political affinities with Castro, the press group wrote this week that "no democrat of the left or right would understand if these affinities were to take precedence over respect for human rights."

Brazilian diplomats have said the president has no plans to meet with dissidents on the island.

Economic issues will also be on the table during Silva's visit.

Brazil's national Development Bank is negotiating a credit line of up to $400 million to finance Cuban imports of Brazilian machinery, farm equipment and food.

In 2002 Brazil exported $95 million worth of products to Cuba and imported less than $10 million.