HAVANA, Cuba (Reuters) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin was due to end
                  the official part of his visit to Cuba early Friday -- before taking off for a
                  weekend at the Caribbean island's world-famous beach resort of Varadero.

                  Putin was due to lay a wreath, visit a biotechnology center, and hold a news
                  conference, before heading to Varadero later Friday, a two-hour drive out of
                  Havana along Cuba's northern coastline, for a weekend in the sun.

                  The Russian, who left a cold Moscow winter behind, was personally invited to
                  Varadero by President Fidel Castro, who is expected to join him for at least part
                  of the time until he flies out from the resort to Canada on Sunday.

                  After flying in the night before, Putin spent most of Thursday with Castro for formal ceremonies,
                  talks and the signing of documents aimed at breathing new life into Moscow- Havana ties --
                  once one of the Cold War's strongest alliances, but quickly dismantled after the Soviet collapse a
                  decade ago.

                  There was apparently no breakthrough in the crucial question of Cuba's enormous Soviet-era
                  debt, which Russian media estimate at around $20 billion. Moscow wants repayment, but Havana
                  says Russia should write it off as "compensation" for damages caused to Cuba's economy by the
                  abrupt Soviet fall.

                  Putin joined Castro in condemning the U.S. trade embargo against Communist-ruled Cuba. But he
                  was also careful to send congratulations to U.S. president-elect George W. Bush, and, in another
                  gesture to Washington, has freed a convicted U.S. spy.

                  Also Thursday, Putin visited with Castro the Russian- operated Lourdes electronic intelligence
                  center outside the Cuban capital, laid a wreath at the monument to "the Soviet internationalist
                  warrior" and met parliamentary speaker Ricardo Alarcon, seen by some as a possible Castro
                  successor.

                  Thursday ended with a gala reception hosted by Castro.

                  Although himself a proponent of multi-party democracy and free-market
                  economics -- both of which Castro has rejected in Cuba -- Putin wants to
                  rekindle Moscow's political and economic ties with its former Cold War ally.

                  In addition to the bilateral trade and investment benefits for Cuba, Putin is
                  thought to want to rebuild Russia's global role, particularly in the Third World,
                  and has not been shy about making advances to other nations viewed
                  suspiciously by the West -- including Libya, North Korea and Iraq.

                  The last major visit to Cuba from Moscow was by Soviet leader Mikhail
                  Gorbachev in 1989.

                  Moscow believes part of Cuba's debt could be covered by Russian participation
                  in some potentially lucrative projects left over from the Soviet era.

                  Unfinished projects include a nickel ore processing plant at Las Camariocas,
                  modernization of the Cienfuegos and Santiago oil refineries and the incomplete
                  Juragua nuclear plant, whose construction was halted in 1992.

                     Copyright 2000 Reuters.