President Bush notified Congress on Friday that he will maintain a ban on lawsuits by U.S. citizens whose property was expropriated by the Cuban revolution.

Bush said in a letter to Congress that the action is "necessary to the national interests of the United States and will expedite a transition to democracy in Cuba."

The lawsuit provision was included in a 1996 law aimed at tightening sanctions against Cuba.

Secretary of State Colin Powell recommended that Bush renew the waiver but some officials urged that the provision be allowed to lapse, thus opening the way to lawsuits.

Bush and President Clinton have exercised the waiver right at six-month intervals since the law was passed in March 1996 shortly after Cuban jet fighters shot down two unarmed Miami-based planes over waters north of Cuba.

A refusal to waive would give Americans the right to sue any individual, investor or business using property seized after the Castro government took power in 1959.

It is believed that a number of suits would be filed against foreign companies that are doing business on expropriated property.

A failure to waive could complicate support by European and other countries for a democratic transition in Cuba, a goal long sought by the United States.