News Article by Reuters posted on September 19, 2001 at 01:48:06: EST (-5 GMT)

U.S. Asks Cuba, Sudan for Help with 'Terrorism'

By Elaine Monaghan

WASHINGTON, Sept 18 (Reuters) - The United States has had good initial contacts
with Sudan, which it has accused of harboring associates of Osama bin Laden, and
with Cuba in its search for partners against guerrilla networks after attacks on New
York and Washington a week ago, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday.

Washington has vowed to fight a long war against terrorism after attacks with
hijacked planes left nearly 6,000 people dead or missing, destroyed the World Trade
Center and damaged the Pentagon.

U.S. officials say their prime suspect is bin Laden, a Saudi-born dissident believed to
be living in Afghanistan whose network may span at least 34 countries including war-
torn Sudan, according to a recent report.

Apart from the expressions of condolence from 194 countries to the United States, the
attacks have opened the door to contacts with such unlikely states as Cuba, a longtime
enemy, and Syria, a harsh critic of Washington.

Contacts with Cuba, subject to a U.S. embargo imposed after President Fidel Castro's
revolution in 1959, had picked up, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said
on Tuesday.

He told a news briefing that Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke to Sudanese
Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail on Monday about ``the kind of cooperation
we can have with them against terrorism, against the groups believed to have
perpetrated this act.''

Boucher added, ``I would say it was a good beginning discussion.''

REPORT CITES SUDAN

Sudan ``continued to be used as a safe haven by members of various groups including
associates of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization, Egyptian al-Gama'a al-
Islamiyya, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the Palestine Islamic Jihad and Hamas,'' a 2000
State Department report on the subject said.

Sudan is on a list of state sponsors of ``terrorism'' along with Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya,
North Korea and Syria, leaving it without most forms of U.S. aid.

But Khartoum and Washington opened a dialogue on terrorism in mid-2000, leading
to what the United States described as ''some positive results''.

Under the Bush administration, relations with Washington have picked up with the
appointment of a special envoy, former U.S. Sen. John Danforth, who is charged with
leading a diplomatic initiative aimed at mediating between Sudan's Muslim
government and the Christian or animist militias in the south.

In 1996, former U.S. President Bill Clinton imposed trade and other sanctions on
Sudan and closed the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum. The removal of the sanctions has
been a subject at the United Nations, but diplomats said their removal was delayed by
last week's attacks.

At Tuesday's briefing, Boucher said U.S. officials had been in contact with Cuba
through its interests section in Washington, which takes the place of an embassy in
the absence of full diplomatic ties.

``We've asked the Cubans through established channels ... for any information they
might have about the terrorist attacks,'' he said.

Critics of the ``state sponsors of terrorism'' blacklist say Cuba is long overdue for
removal from it.

The State Department said several ``terrorists'' and U.S. fugitives still found safe
haven on the island last year and that two Colombian ``terrorist'' groups had a
presence there.