By Rafael Lorente
Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Leading Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá met with Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday, receiving a major morale boost from the top
U.S. diplomat while at the same time reiterating his position that change on the island must come about peaceably and at the direction of the Cuban people.

The two discussed the U.S. embargo of Cuba, which Payá does not support because he does not see it as an instrument for change. Payá also made clear that
foreign investment and tourism were not going to bring about democratic change in Cuba.

The Bush administration strongly supports the four-decade embargo.

"There is a movement for change initiated by a civic group inside Cuba," Payá said. ``That is where hope lies."

Payá, 50, who last year presented his government with the Varela Project, a petition signed by more than 11,000 Cubans calling for political and economic reforms,
said he plans to visit with Cuban exiles in Miami as early as this week.

He was vague about rumors that he would fly to Europe for an audience with Pope John Paul II. "If the pope will receive me, surely I will go see him." He plans to
return home in the next few weeks.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that Powell "expressed his admiration" for Payá's efforts in Cuba.

"It was a very good meeting and I think we heard a lot from Mr. Payá about the efforts that he and others in Cuba are making to try to bring about peaceful,
democratic change in Cuba," Boucher said.

Payá's 20-minute meeting with Powell followed a media picture-taking session where the two shook hands for the cameras.

Payá has been traveling through Europe, where he reluctantly was allowed to travel by Fidel Castro's government to receive the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of
Thought, the European Union's most prestigious human rights award.

On Monday night, he received the W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award, presented by the National Democractic Institute. At the ceremony Payá met Sen. Bill
Nelson, who said he would send a letter today asking the Bush administration to present a resolution at the United Nations in support of the Varela Project. Nelson
sponsored a similar resolution that passed the Senate 87-0 last year.

The Varela Project calls for a referendum on freedom of speech and assembly, amnesty for political prisoners, the creation of private businesses and a revision of
electoral law.

The Cuban government has not responded officially to the Varela Project, but mobilized a signature drive of its own that dissidents saw as a way to repudiate their
efforts.

Rafael Lorente can be reached at rlorente@sun-sentinel.com or 202-824-8225 in Washington. Havana Bureau Chief Vanessa Bauza and Staff Writer Madeline
Baró Diaz contributed to this report.

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