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Cuba says human rights no block to trade pact

BRASILIA: A top Cuban official on Friday said Havana would sign a multilateral trade and aid pact with Europe but would reject any European Union effort to interfere in its internal affairs.

"We will enter as a full member but keeping our concept of sovereignty, of self-determination," Cuba's Vice Foreign Minister Jorge Bolanos told Reuters in an interview during a visit to Brazil.

Earlier this month, the council of ministers of the 71 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group voted unanimously to support Cuba becoming a signatory to the agreement set to replace the Lome Convention. The signing is expected to take place on May 1.

In June 1998, the European Union agreed to let Cuba observe the negotiations with the ACP countries on the new pact. But it said Havana would have to improve its human rights record if it wanted to join the group.

"We have set a formal position to the European Union that we are interested in participating in an equal condition as the other countries. There is no reason to discriminate against Cuba," Bolanos said.

"We think we are well advanced in the broadest conception of human rights that all rights are inter-dependent, also in the social sphere," he said."But we will not accept anything that affects our ability to make our own laws."

ACP officials have said all member states must respect the principles and values of the EU-ACP agreement. The pact cites the importance of human rights, democratic principles and the rule of law.

Bolanos was in Brasilia on the first stop of a tour aiming to invite Latin American governments to participate in the Havana meeting of the G-77 nations set for April 10-14.-Reuters