US limits role on Havana exiles

The United States Wednesday said the problem of the thousands of Cubans who have sought refuge at the Peruvian Embassy in Havana should be settled by members of the Andean Pact -- Bolivia, colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. State Department officials suggested that the US was willing to admit only refugees with relatives in the US or with some other legitimate claim to come to this country.

The Cuban refugees threatened early Wednesday morning to go on a hunger strike to draw attention to their demand to leave Cuban and to the appalling conditions they have lived in since they flooded into the embassy compound. Fears of an epidemic have spread through the compound, where hundreds of small children lie in their own wastes.