By JUAN O. TAMAYO
             Herald Staff Writer

             FBI agents have been examining evidence provided by Cuba officials linking exiles
             to terror attacks, but Havana has been avoiding a follow-up meeting with the
             investigators since December, U.S. officials say.

             The officials spoke in an angry retort to recent complaints from Havana that
             Washington had done nothing with the evidence that Cuban State Security officials
             gave FBI agents during meetings in Havana Aug. 15-17.

             ``We've acted in good faith from the beginning. We told them in December that
             we were ready to meet again. But we heard nothing, until they started accusing us
             of doing nothing, an annoyed U.S. official said.

             FBI and State Department officials declined to comment, leaving open several
             questions on a case viewed as politically sensitive because of U.S. reluctance to
             deal with Cuba's security apparatus:

               Will the FBI use the Cuba-provided evidence to launch a full-blown
             investigation of the accused exiles, most of them in South Florida and some of
             them senior officials of the Cuban American National Foundation?

             Part of Cuba's evidence allegedly involves the seven exiles awaiting trial in Puerto
             Rico on charges of plotting to kill President Fidel Castro. A U.S. grand jury in San
             Juan indicted them last year.

               How detailed and credible is the evidence provided by Cuba? Past Havana
             submissions to the FBI have ranged from solid to little more than clippings from
             U.S. and Cuban newspapers, knowledgeable officials said.

             ``I would guess this was nothing dramatic, or we would have taken action
             immediately,'' a U.S. official said. ``The Cubans' evidence is sometimes little more
             than a few facts seeded among lots of hearsay and allegations.''

             Cuba first disclosed its most recent cooperation with the FBI when State Security
             Col. Adalberto Rabeiro testified two weeks ago at the trial of a Salvadoran man
             who had confessed to six terror bombings around Havana in 1997. Raul Ernesto
             Cruz Leon was found guilty Tuesday and sentenced to death.

             ``We had a group of specialists sent here by important U.S. officials Aug.
             15-16-17, Rabeiro said. ``We gave them all the information you have heard at this
             trial, and more, and we're still waiting for the results.

             Castro chimes in

             Castro himself echoed the grievance last week, saying he held U.S. officials
             ``responsible for a dozen or more bombings in 1997 because of their ``actions,
             omissions or conscious purpose.

             The FBI's failure to crack down on exile terrorists shows that Washington had
             ``previous knowledge or tolerance of attacks plotted or financed by Cuban
             American National Foundation officials, Castro said. The foundation repeatedly
             had denied any links to terrorism.

             U.S. officials knowledgeable about the case admitted that the FBI got off to a
             slow start after the August meeting in Havana because its bomb experts were busy
             investigating the Aug. 7 truck bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and
             Tanzania.

             They also worked more slowly than usual ``because of the need to evaluate the
             information in more detail than normal, due to the source of the materials, another
             U.S. official said.

             But Washington notified Cuba in December that the FBI team was ready to return
             to Havana to brief security officials on the preliminary results of its inquiries, yet
             never heard back, the officials added.

             Denial of inaction

             ``They do nothing for three months and then accuse us of sitting on our hands.
             That's a lie, said a U.S. official authorized to speak on the issue.

             ``Basically we've acted in good faith on this from beginning to end, he added.
             ``We're prepared to follow up and take law enforcement action when warranted
             by the facts and the law. In this specific case, we did follow up.

             Cuba and U.S. officials have long met regularly, perhaps two or three times per
             year, to talk about U.S.-based exile groups plotting violent attacks on the Castro
             government, several veterans of the contacts say.

             The talks always were kept discreet because of concerns about the image of
             accepting information from a repressive communist regime. Washington never
             gives Havana intelligence information that could be used to harm U.S. citizens or
             residents, the veterans insisted.

             Rabeiro testified during Cruz Leon's trial that the evidence turned over to the FBI
             visitors in August ``includes everything before this court -- sweeping his hand
             toward three nearby and crammed tables.

             Traceable evidence

             Among them were explosive detonators and guns whose serial numbers might
             allow the FBI to trace them to their buyers, and a cellular telephone whose call
             records could lead the FBI to identify its users.

             Prosecutors also presented witnesses who testified to alleged links between senior
             Cuban American National Foundation officials and Cruz Leon, a second
             Salvadoran bomber and two Cuban exiles jailed in Havana for terrorism in 1995.

             The witnesses included three men who described themselves as Cuban spies and
             testified that they had visited Miami and been offered money by exile leaders to
             carry bombs and explosives on their return trip to Cuba.

             Rabeiro and the other State Security agents who testified at the trial alleged that a
             paramilitary wing within the Cuban American National Foundation had financed or
             planned a series of terror attempts against Cuba beginning as far back as 1992.

             ``We cannot reveal all the details we have for security reasons, Rabeiro said, ``but
             what more proof do [U.S. officials] want to act against these terrorists?

             A U.S. official answered: ``Obviously it wasn't anything too dramatic, or we would
             have done something quickly. But perhaps over time, the law enforcement will find
             reason to act.