BY DAVID KIDWELL

 Mariano Faget, the former immigration supervisor on trial charged with leaking
 government secrets, took the stand in his own defense Tuesday to say his
 meetings with Cuban spies were to build business contacts for a post-Castro
 Cuba.

 The 54-year-old Cuban immigrant and father of three grown sons also described
 his six-hour interrogation by FBI agents on Feb. 17 as ``very intimidating'' and
 laden with false accusations of espionage against a lifelong friend, Pedro Font.

 ``They had this fixation that I was not being truthful with them,'' Faget said about
 the FBI agents who were trying to get him to cooperate -- an offer he refused
 ``because Mr. Font is not a spy.''

 Faget testified all afternoon in a packed courtroom sprinkled with some of South
 Florida's top federal law enforcement officers who showed up to hear prosecutor
 Richard Gregorie cross-examine Faget about his alleged lies and deceit during
 that interrogation.

 But they came a day early. Those fireworks are expected today.

 On Tuesday, Faget's own attorney -- Ed O'Donnell -- directed the questions
 designed to persuade the jury that Faget's motives were innocent and that he
 never intended to damage the nation's security.

 Faget and Font are partners in a company called America-Cuba Inc. formed in
 1993 to help facilitate American businesses in Cuba once the U.S. embargo has
 been lifted. Faget said he met with officials of the Cuban Interests Section to
 discuss Cuba's future and the potential business climate there, not to divulge
 secrets.

 ``As one gets older, I guess one's roots start tugging at him,'' Faget testified. ``I
 was really anxious to try to do something in the future to try to help Cuba.''

 In an attempt to gauge Faget's involvement with Cuban officials, the FBI used a
 ``dangle'' operation to see if Faget would pass a secret. In a sham orchestrated
 by the FBI, Faget was asked to do the immigration paperwork for a top-secret
 Cuban defector, Luis Molina, one of the two Cubans who had been seen meeting
 with Faget.

 Within 12 minutes, Faget telephoned Font to pass along the classified
 information. Faget said Tuesday he knew Font was going to meet with Cuban
 Interests Section official Jose Imperatori that day and wanted to warn Font to be
 on guard not to ``fall into any trap of any kind.''

 ``Here was a man, Luis Molina, who both Mr. Font and I had met with on several
 occasions and here he was leaving Cuba -- as you say defecting,'' Faget testified.
 ``And Mr. Imperatori had asked for a meeting with Mr. Font. . . . I thought, wow
 this could be a problem.''

 Faget -- who said he had met and disliked Imperatori -- said he had pure motives
 for passing the secret to his friend.

 Authorities, however, argue that Faget was ``targeted and assessed for
 recruitment by Molina and Imperatori, both classified as ``known Cuban
 intelligence officers'' by the FBI, agent James Patrick Laflin testified earlier
 Tuesday.

 Laflin said Faget repeatedly lied about his contacts during six hours of
 questioning on Feb. 17. ``We wanted to determine the nature and scope of Mr.
 Faget's relationship with the known Cuban intelligence officers and to obtain his
 cooperation,'' Laflin said. ``We did not obtain either of those objectives because
 Mr. Faget was manipulative and deceitful.''

 Faget said he felt threatened, nervous and reluctant to cooperate because of the
 FBI's false accusations that Font was a spy.

 Faget recalled an October meeting he had with Imperatori at a Miami hotel lobby
 that the FBI was secretly videotaping.

 ``He asked me to come visit Cuba,'' Faget said. ``I told him I couldn't do that
 because I wouldn't be safe there. We weren't talking about anything subversive,
 but I told him that if we were having this conversation in Cuba, he would be
 arrested and I would be arrested for plotting to overthrow the government.

 ``I told him that the only country in the world where we could have this
 conversation was one with freedom and liberty like this one,'' Faget said. ``Of
 course he disagreed. The facts bore out that I was probably wrong and he was
 probably right.''

 Faget, a 33-year INS veteran, is charged with disclosing classified information,
 giving false statements to the FBI, and converting government secrets to his own
 use. He faces five years in prison if convicted.

 Testimony in the weeklong trial is expected to end today.