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U.S. Administration Says Would Veto End to Cuba Ban [Full Text] WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration on Monday repeated a threat to veto any repeal of the restrictions on travel to Cuba, saying that tourism would not help get rid of President Fidel Castro.

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote on Tuesday on an amendment that would deny the Bush administration the funds it needs to enforce the travel restrictions.

"Sunbathers are not going to liberate Cuba nor is upgrading the brunch at Cuba's isolated tourist enclave hotels," Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega told an event at the Center of Strategic and International Studies.

The U.S. government requires licenses to visit Cuba but does not give them to tourists, arguing that tourism dollars strengthen the government without benefiting the people.

A coalition of business organizations and human rights groups have been making a determined push to overturn the embargo and the travel restrictions, saying they have failed to topple Fidel Castro and have provided the leader with an excuse for the island's economic woes.

A similar amendment passed last year in the House by a 262-167 margin but did not pass in the Senate. Embargo opponents say the Senate is now more receptive to a lifting of the travel ban.

Noriega ridiculed the idea that President Bush should follow the lead of a congressional majority and refrain from using his veto power against an end to the restrictions.

"Why else would a president threaten to veto something that he didn't like? If it didn't have majority support in the Congress, you wouldn't have to veto it. You'd just sit back and watch it crash," he joked.

Last week the White House said that lifting sanctions now "would provide a helping hand to a desperate and repressive regime at the expense of the Cuban people" and that "the President's senior advisers would recommend a veto.

Analysts say U.S. policy toward Cuba is heavily influenced by the views of Cuban-American voters, especially those in southern Florida. The most vocal Cuban-Americans support the embargo but the level of support has been slipping over time. [End]

Cuba Trips, Cigars Sink Bar Applicant*** A self-described liberal idealist who says his three visits to Cuba in violation of federal law were acts of civil disobedience has been denied admission to the New Jersey Bar by the state Supreme Court. Zachary Sanders, who passed the New Jersey bar exam in July 2001, first was given a thumbs down by the Committee on Character, which rejected his argument that he had a right to disobey what he called the "immoral and unjust" embargo on trade and travel to Cuba.

A three-lawyer committee said, "it was crystal clear ... that Mr. Sanders believes himself to be absolutely morally justified in breaking the law." The panel said it viewed him as one who "detaches himself from responsibility to obey the law by endeavoring to distinguish the morality of the law from its legality."***