WASHINGTON – A Cuban-American democracy leader protesting America’s “wet-foot/dry-foot” approach to Cuban immigration ended his hunger strike yesterday, after the Bush administration pledged to meet with Cuban-American leaders to review the policy.

The president of a Miami-based pro-Cuban-democracy organization, the Democracy Movement, Ramon Sanchez, initiated the hunger strike on January 7 to protest the administration’s repatriation of 15 Cubans who narrowly missed securing freedom in America under the terms of “wet-foot/dry-foot.” The policy, implemented in 1995 by President Clinton as part of a pact with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, mandates that asylum seekers who reach American soil are allowed to remain in the country, while those apprehended at sea are returned to the Castro dictatorship.

On January 4, the Cubans, including a 2-year-old boy, climbed aboard pilings of the dilapidated Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys after the rickety vessel that had carried them across the Straits of Florida sank. While some of the bridge’s pilings touch American soil, those that harbored the Cuban refugees did not. They were deemed “feet wet” by federal authorities and deported to Cuba early last week, provoking outrage among the Cuban-American community and leaders in Congress, who denounced wet-foot/dryfoot as cruel and arbitrary and called for an immediate review of the policy.

Mr. Sanchez took the issue to the streets of Miami, maintaining his fast in front of the city’s monuments to Cuban freedom and those who gave their lives in pursuit of it. Although his blood pressure and insulin levels were described as “highly dangerous” Tuesday, Mr. Sanchez had refused to eat until President Bush issued a concrete promise to rethink wet-foot/dry-foot.

That pledge first came late Tuesday night, and was confirmed to Mr. Sanchez yesterday morning, according to a congressional staffer familiar with the situation. An associate of Mr. Sanchez said he gave up his strike upon receiving news that the White House would discuss wet-foot/dry-foot with Cuban-American members of Congress and other leaders of the Cuban-American community, a meeting coordinated by the president’s brother, Florida’s Governor Bush.

An associate of Mr. Sanchez who remained by his side throughout the 11-day strike, Roberto Rodriguez Tejera, told The New York Sun by phone yesterday that his friend was “doing well” at a hospital in Coral Gables, and that he expected Mr. Sanchez would be released Friday, at which point he would hold a press conference in Miami to address the policy.

The Cuban-American community is “extremely happy” about the administration’s announcement, said Mr. Rodriguez, himself a Cuban exile and a former director of Radio Marti. Eliminating wet-foot/dry-foot, he added, “is an important issue not only for the community, but for anyone who cares about the rule of law and freedom.”

“This is not a Cuban issue,” he said. “This is a human rights issue … and the willingness of the government to review this policy is a victory for human dignity.”