Democracy clause an obstacle to Cuba in OAS: report

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Cuba needs to make clear that it is committed to democracy if it wants to return to the Organization of American States as demanded by a growing chorus of Latin American governments, OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza said in an interview published on Monday.

U.S. President Barack Obama is reviewing Washington's decades-old policy of isolating communist Cuba ahead of a Summit of the Americas meeting this weekend, where Latin American leaders are expected to press for an end to the longstanding U.S. embargo on the island.

Some countries are also expected to push for Cuba to be readmitted to the OAS, from which it was expelled in 1962 at the height of the Cold War.

The chances for improving Cuba's ties with Washington and multilateral organizations in the region are better than ever, OAS Secretary-General Insulza told Brazilian daily newspaper O Globo.

But Insulza cautioned that the OAS's democracy clause remained an obstacle to the push to readmit Cuba, a one-party state that has been ruled by Fidel Castro and his younger brother Raul since taking power in a 1959 revolution.

"We need to know if Cuba is interested in returning to multilateral organizations or if it is thinking only about the end of the embargo and economic growth," Insulza said.

"This is a summit of countries with good will but good will alone is not enough to cause change."

All 34 leaders at the Summit, from which Cuba is barred, are from democratic countries, said Insulza, a former Chilean foreign minister.

"The general assembly of the OAS decided that all member countries must adhere to democratic principles," he said when asked about Cuba.

Obama, who took office in January, has promised to ease some sanctions on Cuba and is open to talks with its leaders. But U.S. officials have made it clear that the embargo will not be entirely lifted, to keep up pressure for reforms in Cuba.

Washington also does not want the controversial Cuban issue to dominate the April 17-19 Summit of the Americas.

But Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, one of Washington's fiercest critics, has already said he would seek to put Cuba at the center of the summit debates.

Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is prepared to back Cuba's entry into the OAS but will not push the issue at this week's summit, a senior Brazilian government official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

(Reporting by Raymond Colitt and Natuza Nery, editing by Anthony Boadle)