Cuba Seeks Lifting of U.S. Trade Restrictions

HAVANA — Cuba has turned down American storm relief handouts, but is asking for trade restrictions to be lifted so it can buy American materials to assist in its recovery from Hurricane Ike, officials said yesterday.

"Cuba hasn't asked the United States government to give it anything," the Foreign Ministry said in the Communist Party newspaper Granma. "Simply that it lets us buy."

The Foreign Ministry said it has twice turned down an American government offer to send a disaster assessment team, insisting that Cuban experts are capable of assessing Ike's damage to the island. Cuba says it wants some American trade restrictions lifted instead, so it can buy American roofing and other construction materials to repair homes and the island's electrical grid. It also wants to buy food on credit.