Bush Spurns Carter's Cuba Speech Ideas

May 15 -- The White House today rejected former President Jimmy Carter's calls for lifting the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, saying such a move would "prop up an oppressive regime."

In an unprecedented live and uncensored speech on Tuesday in Havana to an audience that included Cuban President Fidel Castro, Carter urged the U.S. Congress to lift the 40-year embargo on the Caribbean island.

But the White House said today the embargo must stay in place.

"The president believes that the trade embargo is a vital partof America's foreign policy and human rights policy toward Cuba,because trade with Cuba does not benefit the people of Cuba — it'sused to prop up a repressive regime," White House press secretaryAri Fleischer said.

Bush is scheduled to unveil his Cuban policy next Monday at the White House and later visit a Cuban-American community in Miami and headline a fund-raiser for his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

Aides told The Associated Press that the president will seek to toughen U.S. action against the Cuban government and soften the approach toward the Cuban people. Measures aimed at the Castro government are designed to inject elements of democracy, including government-business foundations modeled after an approach the United States took with Poland as that nation emerged from communism, one official told the AP.

Hours before Carter's speech on Tuesday, Bush said he appreciates "President Carter's focus on human rights."

"I think that's important in Cuba, a place where there is no human rights," Bush said, but noted that Carter's trip "hasn't changed my foreign policy." White House officials have complained in private that Carter's anti-embargo stance could overshadow the Bush policy on Cuba.

Meanwhile, a group of 40 lawmakers announced support for easing the Cuban embargo.

"For over 40 years, our policy toward Cuba has yielded no results," said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a member of the House International Relations Committee. "Castro hasn't held free and fair elections, he hasn't improved human rights, and he hasn't stopped preaching his hate for democracy and the U.S.