HAVANA (AP) -- Illinois Gov. George Ryan toured historic Old Havana
                  on Sunday after attending Mass at the capital's towering Roman Catholic
                  Cathedral, where he was thanked for bringing more than $1 million in
                  humanitarian aid to Cuba.

                  "Thank you for the medicines," the Rev. Manuel Pagua said during the Mass.
                  "Thank you for your faith." The Cuban Catholic priest called the Illinois
                  delegation's visit an "evangelical mission" of improving relations between
                  Americans and Cubans.

                  Pounding African drums provided background for a youth choir during the
                  service, attended by about 200 people, including Ryan, the state's first lady,
                  Lura Lynn Ryan, and Vicki Huddleston, chief of the U.S. Interests Section in
                  Havana.

                  Chicago archdiocese Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Perry, who celebrated the
                  Mass with Pagua, said he hoped to show that the U.S. church was
                  supporting its Cuban brethren.

                  "It makes you marvel at what has been politically divisive between the two
                  countries and why it has continued," Perry said.

                  The governor said the Mass -- and a Protestant service held earlier Sunday
                  -- showed that "we could worship and praise the God that we've come here
                  to worship, and that's what this trip is about and that's where we can come
                  together as countries."

                  Ryan, a first-term Republican, is the first U.S. governor to visit Cuba since
                  Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution. He opposes the U.S. trade embargo against
                  Cuba but stressed that his visit by a 45-member delegation of business,
                  religious, academic and government officials was to "build bridges" with the
                  Cuban people.

                  Ryan's trip capitalized on U.S. policy favoring direct contacts between the
                  U.S. and the Cuban people. Washington hopes to encourage the emergence
                  of a civil society in the communist-ruled island.

                  At a Saturday night meeting, Ryan told Ricardo Alarcon, president of
                  Cuba's National Assembly, that he felt like a politician competing for votes
                  when he mixed with a cheering crowd in Havana's Central Park.

                  "I thought they were all voters and I went over and shook their hands," he
                  said jokingly. Then, seriously: "And maybe someday they can be voters, Mr.
                  President."

                  Cuba does have direct elections for government offices, including the
                  presidency held by Castro. But detractors of the government say that the
                  elections are not truly free and competitive because there is only one party,
                  the Communist Party, and there is often only one candidate for each office.

                  Cuba's state-controlled media depicted the trip as a reflection of growing
                  U.S. opposition to the embargo, established in 1962.

                  "I think we ought to drop the embargo and position ourselves for a new
                  relationship with Cuba," said Michael Madigan, speaker of the Illinois House
                  of Representatives. The state house passed a resolution earlier this year
                  calling for an end to the American trade sanctions against Cuba.

                  Among those in the Illinois delegation were representatives of U.S.
                  agribusiness, pharmaceuticals and medical firms that could benefit from an
                  end to the embargo, including food manufacturer Archer Daniels Midland
                  Corp., the John Deere Foundation, affiliated with tractor maker Deere &
                  Co., and Baxter International.

                  Ryan initially had described the trip as a trade mission but more recently
                  called it a "humanitarian" trip.

                  The aid donated by the Illinois delegation was to be distributed by Caritas, a
                  Roman Catholic charity that channels much of the millions of dollars in aid
                  sent to Cubans annually.

                  More private donations of medicine and other humanitarian aid come from
                  the United States than any other country, totaling $472 million in fiscal year
                  1998, according to U.S. government sources.

                  Ryan also toured Old Havana Sunday with City Historian Eusebio Leal on
                  the second day of his five-day visit, stopping by Ernest Hemingway's old
                  room at the Hotel Ambos Mundos and singing briefly with an Afro-Cuban
                  music group.

                  "It has been a magnificent tour," Ryan said. "But after today we are going to
                  get down to serious business."

                  Monday's itinerary included a meeting with dissidents and independent
                  journalists, a visit to a children's hospital and a medical school and a
                  reception at Huddleston's residence.

                    Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.