By Kevin Galvin
Associated Press Writer
Thursday, March 4, 1999; 1:35 a.m. EST

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Clinton administration has intervened officially in a federal lawsuit that led Cuba to cut off direct telephone service with the United States, an administration spokesman said Wednesday.

The service was cut because U.S. companies have been withholding funds to Cuba since December, pending a case filed in Miami against Cuba by the relatives of four Cuban-Americans whose unarmed aircraft were shot down by MiG jets near the island in 1996.

``We have moved recently to intervene as a party to the suit for the limited purposes of an appeal, were it necessary,'' said National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer.

While the State Department previously has voiced opposition to the suit, the administration's move to become a party to the case strengthened its hand should U.S. Judge James Lawrence King rule to garnishee the telephone payments to compensate the survivors.

``We feel that by intervening as a party we're in the best position in case of an appeal to support the president's action to restore telecom payments as soon as possible,'' Hammer said.

Person-to-person communication between U.S. residents and denizens of the island is considered by U.S. policy makers to be a key step toward greater openness in Cuba.

Cuba's telephone company, Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba, S.A., known as ETECSA, cut service to AT&T and MCI WorldCom last week, shortly after Cuba's Foreign Ministry announced support for the move.

Service to Sprint and TLDI of Puerto Rico was maintained because both have continued to pay their bills, the Cuban government said.

In 1997, a federal judge in Miami awarded $187 million to the relatives of the Cubans who were shot down.

Unsuccessful in trying to collect the money from the Cuban government, they asked the court to tap money being paid to ETECSA by the U.S. companies for long-distance calls from the United States to Cuba. That amounted to an estimated $60 million to $70 million in 1997.

The State Department has opposed the families' case, saying that the telecommunications payments cannot be seized because the Cuban telephone company is a separate entity from the government.

The administration also is concerned that a ruling garnisheeing the payments could represent an improper infringement by the judiciary on the executive power regarding international affairs.