The United States remains concerned about Bermuda's relationship with Cuba, US Consul General Denis Coleman said yesterday.

The diplomat said that Community Affairs Minister Dale Butler had misunderstood the outcome of a brief meeting with Premier Alex Scott and that the United States had not changed its position with regard to Cuba and Bermuda.

But he acknowledged that it wasn't really his business what the Bermuda Government decided to do.”

I have not seen the memorandum, nor have I commented on it,” Mr. Coleman said yesterday.

“I did have a short conversation with the Premier shortly after he was elected and he told me that the Government was going to pursue cultural contacts with Cuba. I was silent on it, in that it is not my position to tell the Bermuda Government what to do or not to do. The position of the US is that we isolate Cuba.”

Last week Government announced that it had signed a cultural exchange agreement with the Caribbean nation. As a backbencher Mr. Butler, who as Community Affairs Minister signed the memo for Government, had vigorously opposed the plans, saying that there was a risk of harming relations with the US and that there were concerns about Cuba's human rights record.

But Mr. Butler explained at a Press conference on Thursday that the US Consul had seen the memorandum's terms of reference and had no problems with it. “Once it became obvious that the US Consul had no problem with that then I had no problem with that,” he said.

Mr. Coleman had been off the Island and unavailable for comment at the time.

Contacted yesterday, Mr. Butler acknowledged that he had misunderstood the situation and said he had spoken to Mr. Coleman about it and apologised.

Mr. Coleman stressed that he felt forced to comment because he had been inadvertently misrepresented in yesterday's Royal Gazette. “I'm in no way ratifying the actions of the Government with regard to Cuba. It's not up to me to pass judgment on them either, but I'm forced to comment since I'm actually misquoted here. This is not something we are supportive of. We continue to be concerned that there is commercial outreach with regards to transportation,” he said.

“We accept the fact that this is what Bermuda is going to do. We've made our position known and now it's time to move forward.”

Asked whether Bermuda's relations with the United States were being harmed as a result, he said that the two countries had a “deeper basis for a relationship that any one single item”.

But he repeated earlier statements that Government's Cuba moves were “not constructive”.

“That's what I'm saying and in Congress you have 235 people who will interpret things the way they want to. So I cannot speak for those people - I can only say some of those who speak on Bermuda will interpret it however they want to.”

Mr. Coleman continued: “Where you have a series of those types of things and you perceive a pattern, that's something that would be of more concern.”

Premier Scott, currently off the Island, indicated last week that plans to sell old buses and ferries to Cuba were no longer being floated. Transport Minister Ewart Brown could not be contacted for clarification.

Government's agreement with Cuba promotes cultural and artistic exchanges and Minister Butler has said it would be of tremendous benefit to Bermuda's cultural development and had already yielded some initiatives.