HAVANA -- Defending the trial that convicted four dissidents of sedition, Cuba on Thursday charged the group with having ties to the U.S. government and exile groups. It also accused some foreign correspondents of serving as their spokesmen.

The Communist Party daily Granma devoted three pages to denouncing dissidents as traitors and mercenaries on the U.S. payroll.

The editorial leveled charges similar to those they faced in court: promoting aggressive U.S. policies toward Cuba and trying to discourage foreign investment.

After Monday's trial, prosecutors recommended a six-year sentence for Vladimiro Roca, son of late Cuban Communist Party leader Blas Roca, and five years each for Rene Gomez Manzano, Felix Bonne and Marta Beatriz Roque. The verdicts are pending.

The editorial also accused the U.S. government of ``lending material and political support'' to dissidents for their ``destabilizing activities.''

It criticized some unidentified foreign journalists here of ``distorting the reality of the country in their reports and becoming spokesmen'' for people who ``are interested in damaging the national economy and subverting the social order of the country.''

``Several members [of the foreign press] . . . have contributed in no small part . . . to conspiracies and slanderous campaigns against Cuba,'' Granma said.

The newspaper singled out reporters ``who always seemed eager'' to attend press conferences held by dissidents.