WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The United States on Thursday condemned Cuba's
                  arrest of two Czech diplomats who face trial for "counter-revolutionary" plotting
                  on Washington's behalf.

                  "We fully agree with the Czech Republic's statement calling their detention
                  'groundless and in defiance of the principles that all democratic nations stand
                  for,"' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in a statement.

                  "We call upon the Cuban government to release the two men immediately," he added.

                  The Czech parliament said on Thursday it was sending a delegation to Havana to try to free
                  parliamentarian and ex-finance minister Ivan Pilip and former student leader Jan
                  Bubenik.

                  They were arrested last week after meeting dissidents while on a visit to Cuba,
                  where President Fidel Castro led a revolution in 1959, prompting a 40-year-old
                  U.S. economic embargo.

                  Cuba had been expected to expel the pair, as it has in other recent cases of
                  foreigners who met opponents of Castro's government.

                  "Mr Pilip and Mr Bubenik's only "offense" was to meet with Cuban activists who
                  seek peaceful change of Cuba's totalitarian government," Boucher said.

                  A government statement in Havana on Tuesday described the Czechs as "agents
                  at the service of the United States" and said they would go before tribunals.

                  It described the protests from Prague, its one-time communist-bloc ally, as
                  "hysterical cries which are worth nothing" from a "true lackey of imperialism."

                  The Czech Republic enjoys warm ties with the United States and is a candidate
                  to join the European Union.

                  President Vaclav Havel, himself a former dissident in Prague's communist-ruled
                  days, has asked Czech-born U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to run in
                  any future race to replace him. Albright has politely declined and intends to chair
                  a Washington pro-democracy nonprofit organization.

                  Separately, Amnesty International said on Thursday that a new wave of political
                  oppression has gripped Cuba, with escalating arrests and harassment of the
                  communist government's opponents.

                  "The increasing number of people jailed for peacefully exercising their rights to
                  freedom of expression, clearly demonstrates the level to which the government
                  will go in order to weaken the political opposition and suppress dissidents," the
                  London-based international human rights group said.

                  The current crackdown began in October last year with mass arrests and
                  convictions of people, such as trade unionists, accused of
                  "counter-revolutionary" activities, Amnesty said.

                  The anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in December only
                  intensified the repression. Two prominent dissidents, Angel Moya Acosta and
                  Julia Cecilia Delgado were arrested and sentenced to a year in prison for
                  "disrespect."

                  They were among 16 people detained in the crackdown, Amnesty said.

                  About 700 people now are in Cuban jails for political offenses such as exercising
                  freedom of expression or assembly,

                     Copyright 2001 Reuters.