``Once they are established it is hard to remove them,'' Castro told the top leadership of the American Society of Newspaper Editors during a far-ranging meeting that lasted more than six hours.
Granting permission for a bureau ``is a matter of confidence to be built step by step,'' the editors quoted him as saying. ``We have had a lot of experience with (American) journalists who are biased.''
Nevertheless, Edward L. Seaton, ASNE president and editor of The Manhattan (Kan.) Mercury, said he thought Castro listened to the group's arguments for letting American journalists open offices in the country. Currently, Cuba grants U.S. reporters work visas for a week or two.
``I think we got across quite well our message: that they need to have print journalists from the United States in Cuba,'' said Seaton. The ASNE has 870 members from newspapers across the United States.
Currently, the only U.S. news organization that has Cuban government approval to operate a permanent office in the country is Cable News Network. CNN opened its Havana bureau, headed by correspondent Lucia Newman, in March 1997.
The network is the first American news organization to operate a bureau in the country since The Associated Press was expelled in 1969.
The 32-member ASNE delegation, made up of the board of directors and other top leaders, arrived in Cuba on Wednesday and was returning to the United States early Sunday.
During their four-day visit, the editors met with top government leaders, including Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina, Vice President Carlos Lage and Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's parliament.
They also toured Havana and Matanzas province to the east, and met with church leaders as well as opposition leaders.
Dressed in his traditional olive green fatigues, Castro also spent about an hour talking specifically with two executives from the Miami Herald: Douglas C. Clifton, executive editor and senior vice president, and David Lawrence Jr., chairman of the Miami Herald Publishing Co.
Castro criticized the newspaper's story about him based on the statements of a Cuban woman living in Costa Rica who claimed that he had been near death last year. The woman later turned out to be a fraud.
But he praised the newspaper's coverage of a series of bombings at Havana hotels and other tourist spots last year, especially its investigative work in identifying a Salvadoran man who later was arrested in the attacks.
In other comments, he criticized major league baseball recruiters for ``stealing'' some of Cuba's best players and maintained that Cuba had a lot better players than Orlando and Livan Hernandez, half-brothers who defected and went on to play in World Series. Orlando Hernandez plays for the New York Yankees and Livian Hernandez for the Florida Marlins.
As for whether he ever would retire, he told the editors: ``I have a moral obligation'' to continue as Cuba's leader, especially during the country's current economic crisis.
The Castro government invited the ASNE to visit Cuba after top leaders expressed interest in getting to know the country better. The board also has visited Mexico, Russia, China and South Africa.
Castro's relationship with the ASNE dates back to shortly after he took power in 1959. That year, the society invited him to speak at a convention it held in Washington.
© Copyright 1998 The Associated Press