BY ANA RADELAT
 Special to The Herald

 WASHINGTON -- An attempt to ease trade sanctions against Cuba and other
 hostile nations was dealt a final blow Thursday as key members of Congress
 agreed to drop all trade policy provisions from a farm bill that is headed for the
 House and Senate floors.

 For over a week, House and Senate negotiators were stalemated because House
 Republican leaders opposed a Senate measure that would ease restrictions on
 the sale of food and medicine to Cuba.

 At the behest of Reps. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Miami
 Republicans, GOP House leaders offered farm bill negotiators a deal: ``Carve out''
 Cuba from an anti-sanctions package and they would accept the easing of
 sanctions on other ``rogue'' states, including Iran, Libya and Sudan.

 When the House leaders were unable to obtain support for their ``carve out,'' they
 cut short the negotiations and drafted a new package that would not ease
 sanctions or contain changes to the federal dairy program -- another controversial
 issue that hindered agreement on the $69 billion farm bill.

 FINALLY WIN SUPPORT

 By offering other incentives to stubborn House and Senate negotiators -- including
 $1.2 billion in supplemental emergency aid to farmers who suffered from droughts
 and floods -- the GOP leaders late Thursday finally won support for their package.
 The new farm bill, which now contains nearly $9 billion in emergency drought and
 flood relief, may be on the House floor as early as today.

 U.S. farmers, plagued by depressed prices, led the failed effort to ease economic
 sanctions in the hopes of finding new markets. But Ros-Lehtinen argued that
 Cuba would be a very small market for U.S. farm goods. She also insisted that
 ``Castro doesn't pay his bills.''

 Diaz-Balart, who sought help from House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, in
 his fight against easing Cuba sanctions, praised the efforts of House GOP leaders
 in insisting that the embargo on Cuba be kept in place until Havana enacts
 democratic reforms.

 Both Cuban-American lawmakers had predicted that any anti-sanctions initiative
 that included Cuba would fail and dash any chance of opening other markets that
 are now closed to American farmers.

 The acrimonious fight over sanctions policy prompted Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo.,
 leader of the campaign in the Senate, and other farm state legislators to threaten
 to vote against the farm bill.

 If the bill fails to win majority support in either chamber, it will probably be another
 spending bill that GOP leaders and White House officials will have to negotiate in
 a special omnibus bill.

 EFFORT CONTINUES

 The derailment of the anti-sanctions measure in the farm bill doesn't mean the
 effort to ease trade sanctions in Cuba has ended.

 Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., plans to introduce an amendment to the Export
 Administration Act on the matter of food and medicine sales to Cuba.

 Moreover, the White House says it's willing go further to make humanitarian sales
 to Cuba possible, even as it opposed Ashcroft's anti-sanctions efforts on the
 grounds that it would erode presidential power.

 ``If there's a strong consensus in Congress to broadening the sales of food and
 medicines to Cuba, we'd be supportive,'' said Mike Hammer, spokesman for the
 White House's National Security Council.