By The Associated Press

          HAVANA (AP) -- The ties between Havana and Mobile, Ala., stretch
          back three centuries, to a time when sailing ships laden with sugar and
          supplies crisscrossed the Gulf of Mexico between the then-Spanish
          colony and French Louisiana Territory.

          But the cultural and commercial relations between the two port cities
          were interrupted in the early 1960s after Fidel Castro established a
          communist government on the island, causing a serious rift with the
          United States.

          Although diplomatic relations between the countries have never been
          restored, and a U.S. trade embargo remains, leaders in both cities are
          re-establishing the links that played such an important role in their
          communities' early development.

          ``Mobile could not have made it without Havana,'' said Jay
          Higginbotham, Mobile city archivist who was in the Cuban capital this
          week to meet with the U.S.-Cuba Sister Cities Association.

          Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly, welcomed the
          meeting, telling participants that when diplomatic relationships finally are
          restored, associations such as theirs will ensure that ties already exist
          between people in both nations.

          Havana and Mobile in 1993 became the first sister city relationship
          between the two nations since the 1959 revolution that brought Castro to
          power.

          Since, five other pairs of cities have followed suit: Pittsburgh and the
          central city of Matanzas; Bloomington, Ind., and the central city of Santa
          Clara; Madison, Wis., and the eastern city of Camaguey; Oakland,
          Calif., and Santiago in the island's extreme east; Richmond, Calif., and
          Regla, a community within Havana province.

          Another 20 American cities, including Seattle, currently are forming sister
          relationships with counterparts in Cuba, said Lisa Valanti, president of
          the U.S.-Cuba Sister Cities Association.

          Because of the embargo ``the people-to-people relationships are still
          difficult,'' said Valanti, also president of the Pittsburgh-Matanzas Sister
          City Project. ``But we are building these ties and we hope to make them
          durable enough to endure after the blockade has ended.

          ``When we talk about Cuba, Miami should not be the only city we
          should think of,'' said Valanti, referring to the adopted home of about
          800,000 Cuban-Americans, many of whom support continued U.S.
          trade sanctions.

          The Pittsburgh-Matanzas sister city relationship was made official in
          1997. The others were also formed in recent years.

          But only Havana and Mobile have a historical relationship stretching back
          centuries, said Higginbotham, chairman of the Society Mobile-La
          Habana.

          Pierre Le Moyne d' Iberville, the first governor of French Louisiana
          Terrority who founded Mobile in 1702, was a frequent visitor to Havana
          and died here of yellow fever in 1706, said the city archivist.

          Iberville was buried in Old Havana's San Cristobal Church and an
          8-foot-tall bronze statue of the 18th century explorer and statesman
          stands next to the city's famous Malecon seawall, facing out toward the
          old Spanish Morro fortress.

          Higginbotham said that more recently, Dr. William Crawford Gargas, a
          Mobile physician, assisted Cuban Dr. Carlos J. Finlay in research into his
          theory that the mosquito carried yellow fever. Finlay identified the exact
          species in 1882.

          Later this year, the Society Mobile-La Habana hopes to continue the
          tradition of medical exchanges between the two cities, said Robert
          Martins Schaefer, society president.

          Under a program approved by Cuban health officials during the sister
          cities meeting, doctors from Mobile would travel here in the fall to meet
          with Cuban counterparts, said Schaefer, associate professor at the
          University of Mobile and chair of the Department of Social and
          Behavioral Sciences.

          Two Havana doctors already visited Mobile and toured area hospitals in
          the spring. ``They have plenty of experience and intellect that our doctors
          can benefit from,'' said Schaefer.

          Next month, officials from Havana will visit Mobile. City Historian
          Eusebio Leal has toured Mobile's historical rehabilitation projects, hoping
          the mutual influence between the two cities will provide clues for Old
          Havana's own renovation project. A Havana city planner also spent
          several months there studying public works projects.

          ``It has really been an inspiring example of what people can do when
          they team up and work together,'' Higginbotham said. ``Our cities have a
          lot in common.''