CANADIAN FIRM TO CONSTRUCT HOTELS IN CUBA.

Byline: Associated Press 

Amid the furor over U.S. efforts to curb investment in Cuba, a Canadian executive confirmed Friday his company has signed a $400 million deal to build 11 resort hotels in the communist-ruled island.

The deal, signed in Havana this week, is one of the largest foreign investments ever in Cuba's tourism industry, which Fidel Castro's government hopes to expand.

The deal calls for Cuba's state-run hotel company and Wilton Properties Ltd. of Vancouver to split the $400 million cost of a 10-year program to develop 11 hotels, two golf courses and other attractions in and around Havana.

The hotels will have a total of 4,200 rooms, said Walter Berukoff, owner of Wilton Properties.

The deal comes as Canada is playing a leading role in opposing the Helms-Burton Act. That U.S. legislation, adopted earlier this year, allows lawsuits against companies operating in Cuba that use property expropriated by Castro's government after the 1959 revolution.

Berukoff, who also heads a mining company active in Cuba, said in a telephone interview that Helms-Burton shouldn't affect the development project.

``We've been very careful not to deal in expropriated U.S. properties,'' he said. ``We have no desire to upset the Americans.''

Though Berukoff's mining firm, Miramar Mining Corp. has developed copper and gold mining sites in Cuba over the past three years, the hotel project will be Wilton Properties' first development there.

``The Cubans are very excited and so are we,'' Berukoff said.