In a tough, new threat to dissent, Cuba's legislature Monday unveiled a law that classifies a broad range of activities as security crimes and slaps 30-year prison terms on violators.

The measure was part of an overhaul of Cuba's penal code that would also approve the death sentence for major drug traffickers and increase the maximum prison term for several crimes from 20 to 30 years.

``Before we get to 2,000 drug-related deaths, it's preferable to send a few before firing squads, President Fidel Castro told the National Assembly of Peoples' Power, the island's Communist Party-run legislature.

The assembly had not voted on the twin measures as of Monday evening, but it was considered certain to adopt the proposals brought to it by Castro and Attorney General Juan Escalona.

The law on security crimes appeared to be a direct reply to a long stream of Clinton administration measures, the latest announced Jan. 5, designed to support dissidents and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) in Cuba.

The Clinton measures allow U.S. residents to send cash and other aid to dissidents and NGOs, and cleared the way for increased contacts between U.S. and Cuban groups.

But the Cuban law bans the ``donation, receipt, request, distribution or facilitation of material, financial or other resources for the purpose of undermining state security. It also outlaws ``the promotion, organization, inauguration or participation in meetings or demonstrations with such aims.

The measure makes it a crime for Cubans to ``collaborate in the constant economic, political, diplomatic, propaganda and ideological war against our homeland.

And it outlaws the ``supply, search or gathering of information and bans ``the collaboration . . . with radio and television stations, newspapers, magazines and other mass media'' for such purposes.

That section clearly applies to the dozens of dissidents and independent journalists who send reports to the U.S. government-run Radio and TV Marti, to Internet sites abroad and to newspapers such as El Nuevo Herald.

Because such activities threaten the ``fundamental interests of the nation, the law considers them to be crimes even if they take place abroad, according to news reports from Havana.

Violators could be jailed for up to 30 years, fined up to 100,000 pesos -- in a country where the average monthly salary is 217 pesos -- and have their homes, cars and other properties confiscated.

But even if never actually used, the law is so broadly drawn that it is certain to frighten dissidents, independent journalists and other nongovernment players in the Cuban drama.

``There's great concern in Cuba over whether this could lead to a worsening, if that is possible, of the human rights situation there, said human rights activist Elizardo Sanchez, visiting relatives in Miami.

Sanchez declined to comment further, saying he first wanted to read the law's full text but acknowledging that he was concerned the Cuban government might apply the new law to anything he said.

``Cuban law is already supremely restrictive, said Jose Miguel Vivanco, executive chief of the Americas section of Human Rights Watch. ``This new law may finally suffocate the last possibility for alternative thinking.

Castro set the stage for the legislature's debate on the penal code reforms with a televised speech charging that Washington is promoting crime in Cuba as a way to undermine his government.

``They are encouraging it, propagandizing it . . . to turn it into a tool against the country, he said, recounting his speech last month urging National Police officials to stem the island's rising crime wave.

Police officers have since run prostitutes off Havana's seaside Malecon drive and sent hundreds of petty criminals and black market operators to jail, while prosecutors won the death penalty for Cubans who murdered two Italian tourists last year.

The new code increases from 20 to 30 years the maximum penalty for small-scale drug trafficking, theft, pimping and corruption of minors and introduced the possibility of life sentences for repeat offenders.

It also provides death sentences for armed robbers and drug traffickers who deal in large amounts or involve minors, recommends life sentences for violent robberies and establishes the new crimes of money laundering and people smuggling.

By coincidence, a group of North and South American Catholic bishops gathered in Havana Monday repeated the church's decades-old opposition to the death penalty. But Castro was unmoved.

``I hope the day comes when we can do without the death penalty, he told the Assembly. ``But first we oppose the death penalty against the country, against the death of the country.