By Adrian Croft
BRUSSELS, Feb 2 (Reuters) - A group of 71 developing countries said on Wednesday it supported Cuba joining a new trade and aid agreement which it is negotiating with the European Union.
The council of ministers of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group voted unanimously at a meeting on Tuesday evening to back Cuba becoming a signatory to the agreement which will replace the Lome Convention, ACP officials said.
The resolution said the ACP council of ministers ``decides to lend its full support to the position that Cuba signs that convention jointly with the other ACP signatory states.''
That would mean Cuba becoming a full member of the new agreement with all the privileges and obligations that entails.
In June 1998, the EU agreed to let Cuba observe the negotiations with the ACP countries on the new trade and aid pact but said Havana would have to improve its human rights record if it wanted to join the group.
The negotiations, which began in September 1998, are expected to be wrapped up in a two-day EU-ACP ministerial negotiating session in Brussels which is due to end on Thursday.
``The ACP Council of Ministers decided to express the wish that Cuba participate in the new convention as a signatory state -- if Cuba wishes to do so, naturally,'' Max Puig, secretary of state of the Dominican Republic, told Reuters.
After the decision was taken, a Cuban representative at the meeting thanked the ministers for their decision, he said.
The ACP resolution said EU officials would be informed of the decision on Cuba during the current Brussels talks.
EU officials said they had not yet been formally notified and would not comment on what their reaction would be.
MEMBERS MUST RESPECT VALUES OF AGREEMENT
Puig said that all member states had to respect the principles and values of the EU-ACP agreement. The pact states the importance of respect for human rights, democratic principles and the rule of law.
In granting Cuba's request for observer status at the talks in June 1998, EU foreign ministers made clear that Cuba would have to satisfy strict political conditions if it ever sought to join the convention and would have to make substantial progress on human rights, good governance and
political freedom.
The ACP group also agreed that the signing ceremony for the new agreement should take place in Fiji. ACP officials said it would probably be signed in May or June.
The new agreement is a radical overhaul of the Lome Convention, which has governed EU-ACP trade and aid relations for a quarter of a century.
Both sides have already agreed on a shift towards regional free-trade agreements between the EU and better-off ACP states after an eight-year preparatory period.
EU and ACP ministers were set for a late-night negotiating session to try to overcome remaining differences, including the duration of the new agreement. The ACP countries are pushing for it to last 30 years and the EU for 15 years.
The EU, driven by increasing European concern over illegal immigration, wants ACP countries to agree to include a provision committing them to take back their citizens who try to immigrate illegally into Europe.
ACP countries are also disappointed with the EU's offer of 13.5 billion euros ($13.18 billion) in aid to the ACP nations over the next five years, a five percent increase over the last five-year period.
20:22 02-02-00
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