By Andrew Cawthorne
HAVANA, Oct 9 (Reuters) - British Foreign Office minister Liz Symons met a group of Cuban dissidents on Friday at the end of one of the highest-level official visits from London to the island since Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution.
Speaking to reporters prior to her departure on Friday evening, Symons also said she had held ``frank'' talks about human rights and democracy issues with ministers and other senior officials of Cuba's communist government.
``I think we have been very honest, and that is a good starting point,'' she said at Havana's international airport.
Symons was winding up a three-day visit to the Caribbean island which focused additionally on trade, aviation and anti-narcotics cooperation between the two nations.
She also talked about Havana's debt with Britain, estimated at 60 million to 80 million pounds ($102 million to $136 million), announced a new 155,000 pound ($265,000) anti-drug training course for Cuban customs officers, and visited a memorial garden in Havana for Princess Diana.
Her trip -- the latest in a flurry of visits to Cuba by Western officials since Pope John Paul's landmark tour in January -- was the first by a senior member of Britain's new Labour government and the highest-level Foreign Office visit since Castro took power.
Although Symons declined to give details, sources confirmed she met for about an hour at the British Embassy with five well-known dissidents on the island: Elizardo Sanchez, Oswaldo Paya, Leonel Morejon, Odilia Collazo and Aida Valdes.
``I've obviously had discussions about what they believe are the difficulties that they experience in Cuba,'' she said, adding they also talked about elections and free expression.
Cuba generally considers dissidents to be ``counter- revolutionaries'' and the island's penal code formally outlaws a range of anti-government activities such as ``enemy propaganda,'' ``disrespect,'' ``spreading false information,'' ``illicit association,'' ``rebellion'' or ``secret printing.''
Scores of small, illegal opposition and human rights groups do exist in Cuba, but have no access to the media, cannot hold public meetings and do not threaten the ruling Communist Party's dominance or its one-party political system.
Quizzed about the upcoming trial for ``sedition'' of four of Cuba's best-known jailed dissidents, who were jailed for 14 months without charges, Symons said Britain was ``always concerned'' when people are held without formal accusations against them.
But she noted that this happens in a number of countries, including within the European Union. ``There will be a lot of concern about the trial, how the trial is held, the independence of the lawyers and the public access to the trial,'' she added.
The four -- Vladimiro Roca, Martha Beatriz Roque, Felix Bonne and Rene Gomez Manzano -- were detained on July 16, 1997, after issuing a document criticising Cuba's one-party political system and calling for democratic changes.
Appeals for their freedom have come from a range of foreign governments and groups including the Vatican, EU nations, the United States, Canada, and Amnesty International.
In contrast to the United States, which maintains a long- standing economic embargo against Cuba, Britain and other EU states argue the best way to foster change on the island is to engage Castro's government in a constructive dialogue that includes trade and other relations.
Cuban Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina said Symons' visit showed Britain's ``clear will'' to maintain good high-level relations with Havana.
21:32 10-09-98
Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.