Talks to resume Thursday in N.Y.

 BY ANA RADELAT
 Special to The Herald

 WASHINGTON -- Just days after the State Department criticized the Cuban
 government's migration policy and restricted the movement of a high-ranking
 official visiting New York, Cuba agreed to resume stalled migration talks, a State
 Department official disclosed Friday.

 Cuban diplomats will meet with U.S. officials in New York on Thursday in a
 face-to-face reunion that will allow both sides to express complaints about
 migration issues, said Peter Romero, acting assistant secretary of state for Latin
 America.

 The talks were halted indefinitely by Havana in June, when Havana officials
 claimed that the bitter dispute over the fate of shipwreck victim 6-year-old Elián
 González had poisoned the atmosphere for negotiations.

 The last migration talks, held in December in Havana at a time when the child
 was in the custody of his Miami relatives, were deemed unproductive by both
 Havana and Washington.

 Last month, frustration over Cuba's unwillingness to meet on migration matters
 prompted the State Department to send tough diplomatic notes to Cuba's foreign
 ministry and to Fernando Remírez, head of the Cuban Interests Section in
 Washington, charging that Cuba has denied exit permits to ``a large and growing
 number of Cubans citizens.''

 The notes said 117 Cubans from 57 families had been denied permission to
 migrate to the United States by the Cuban government in a recent 75-day period
 even though they had been granted U.S. entry visas.

 The diplomatic notes also accused Cuba of denying exit permits to the relatives of
 Cubans who leave the country without permission.

 ``The Cuban government is punishing entire families, including small children, for
 the action of one family member,'' one note declared.

 A State Department official said that negotiators will press Cuba to permit
 everyone with a U.S. visa to depart. They will also try to persuade Havana to lower
 the migration fees, which usually total nearly $600 and pose another barrier to
 legal emigration, according to the State Department.

 The U.S. side is expected to take up two other issues as well: a longstanding
 request to allow diplomats from the U.S. Interests Section in Havana to travel to
 Santiago de Cuba to take visa applications; and the need for greater access to
 Cubans who have been intercepted at sea by U.S. authorities and returned home.

 The interviews are aimed at determining whether returned migrants face retribution
 from Cuban authorities. Bill Brownfield, deputy assistant secretary for Western
 Hemisphere Affairs, will head the U.S. delegation and Ricardo Alarcón, head of
 Cuba's national assembly, will be the lead Cuban official at the talks.

 Before Cuba agreed to meet on migration, Alarcón, Cuba's ``point man'' on U.S.
 relations, was denied a request to travel to New York for a meeting of international
 legislators scheduled just prior to the United Nations' Sept. 6-8 Millennium
 Summit of world leaders.

 Subsequently, Alarcón was allowed to attend the summit, but was not given
 permission to expand his travel to Washington, D.C., or South Carolina to accept
 speaking invitations from members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

 Barring State Department permission, Cuban officials attending U.N. events are
 required to remain within a radius of 25 miles from Columbus Circle in Manhattan.
 U.S. diplomats in Havana face similar travel restrictions.

 A State Department official said the denials ``were not done to pressure [Alarcón]
 on migration talks.'' The official added, ``If there was pressure, it was through the
 diplomatic notes.''

 In response, Cuba rebuffed the U.S. request for greater access to returned
 migrants. It also rejected the U.S. request to increase staff at the U.S. diplomatic
 mission in Havana and allow Havana-based U.S. diplomats to make working trips
 to Santiago de Cuba.

 Moreover, Cuba indicated it would continue to reject the Clinton administration's
 demands that it end a waiting period of three to five years for certain
 professionals, such as doctors, who want to emigrate.

 Biannual talks between Havana and Washington have alternated between New
 York and Havana since migration accords were signed in 1994 and 1995 after a
 tide of 35,000 Cuban rafters tried to reach U.S. shores in the summer of 1994.