HAVANA -- (AP) -- American literary giants Arthur Miller and William Styron met
 Friday with a leading Cuban human rights activist to hear his views on civil
 liberties in the Communist-run country and to discuss simmering Cold War
 hostilities that keep their countries apart.

 ``The most relevant thing about their visit was that it signified human support for
 what we are doing here,'' said Elizardo Sanchez, president of the Cuban
 Commission of Human Rights and Reconciliation.

 Sanchez told Associated Press Television News that he gave Miller, Styron and
 other members of their group his view of human rights in Cuba, including what he
 called an increase in politically motivated arrests.

 Sanchez said he and his visitors agreed that a normalization of relations between
 Havana and Washington could ultimately help ease the pressure the Cuban
 government places on its opponents.

 The Americans did not comment on their visit with Sanchez.

 Earlier in the day, however, Miller told APTN during a stroll through Old Havana
 that he thought an end to the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba could help open
 its society.

 ``I do think it's time,'' Miller said. ``We would help them regain their standing in the
 world and it could lead to a freer society if we just didn't cut them off this way.''

 Styron expressed similar views, saying he hoped the trade embargo would be
 dropped in the next four or five years.

 During the trip, which began Wednesday, the writers are to meet Foreign Minister
 Felipe Perez Roque and Ricardo Alarcon, president of the National Assembly.
 They also are meeting with Cuban writers, playwrights and actors before returning
 to the United States on Sunday.

 On Thursday night they dined with Colombian writer and Nobel laureate Gabriel
 Garcia Marquez.

 Miller was accompanied by his wife, photographer Inge Morath.

 The 85-year-old playwright is probably best known for the Pulitzer-Prize winning
 Death of a Salesman and Tony-Award winning The Crucible, which looked at
 anti-Communist witch hunts in the United States during the Cold War.

 Styron came with his wife, poet Rosa Styron. The 75-year-old novelist is author of
 the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Confessions of Nat Turner, as well as Sophie's
 Choice.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald