Pullout Hailed, but U.S. Hard-Liners Insist Soviets Go Further : Cuba: Anti-Castro conservatives want Moscow to cut off all help as a condition for U.S. aid to Moscow and the republics.

The White House and Congress on Wednesday welcomed the announcement of a plan to withdraw Soviet troops from Cuba, but anti-Castro hard-liners on Capitol Hill demanded that Moscow go further and cut off all economic assistance to Havana as a condition for U.S. aid to the beleaguered Soviet central government and its republics.

In Florida, Cuban emigres predicted that the departure of Soviet troops will mark the beginning of the end for President Fidel Castro’s 32-year hold on power.

President Bush said that a troop withdrawal is long overdue. “I wish they’d hurry up,” Bush told reporters during a photo session at the White House.

The reaction on Capitol Hill had a much harder edge.

Sen. Connie Mack (R-Fla.), called on Congress to reject economic aid to any part of the disintegrating Soviet Union until Moscow agrees to end all economic assistance to Cuba, including the purchase of its sugar at prices above the world market. “I think they’ve got to go all the way,” Mack told reporters.

Mack said Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev “is propping up an old-line Communist regime and it makes no sense to give aid to the Soviet Union when some of it goes indirectly to Castro.”

Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, chairman of the Senate Republican Campaign Committee, and Rep. Newt Gingrich of Georgia, Republican whip in the House, made similar demands after a White House meeting with Bush.

“Why do we send a single dollar of the American taxpayer’s money to Moscow to change back accounts and go back to Havana?” Gramm asked. “We can’t let this freedom tide wash over the world and not drown Fidel Castro.”

Gingrich added, “We’re not going to pass any kind of significant aid that helps the Russians while that aid is still being sent to Cuba.”

The Administration regularly calls on Moscow to cut its economic ties with Havana, suggesting that such a step would help to clear the way for U.S. food and other assistance. But the White House shied away from the sort of blunt ultimatum that lawmakers hope to send.

“We haven’t tried to lay down threats or specific guidelines,” White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said. But he added: “It’s our policy that the quickest and best way (for Moscow) to get money is to take some of that Cuban aid and apply it to their own economy.”

Mack, whose state is the home to the largest concentration of anti-Castro Cuban emigres, said there are plenty of votes in Congress to approve linkage of economic aid to Moscow with an end to Soviet support for Cuba.

In a speech in Detroit, White House National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft suggested that the Cuban economy could be plunged into a crisis by a sharp reduction in Soviet aid.

Rep. Dante Fascell (D-Fla.), chairman of House Foreign Affairs committee, welcomed Gorbachev’s announcement, saying in a statement: “This is a bold step by the Soviets and I congratulate them.”

“Now I look forward to the day when even the Soviet intelligence-gathering apparatus on the island is removed and we can, indeed, trust each other on all counts.”

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), who was born in Cuba, said: “This could very well be the beginning of the end for Fidel Castro. Castro has used the presence of the Soviet troops as a source of intimidation to keep potential dissidents in line.

In Miami, where even minor events in Cuba are watched closely, the news of a troop-withdrawal plan was greeted with jubilation.

Julio Mendez, manager of Spanish-language radio station WQBA-La Cubanissima, said: “The reaction of Cubans is extremely happy. This may be the end of Castro. The morale among the Cuban people (on the island) will be low because Castro always told them he had the support of Russia.”

Times staff writer William J. Eaton, in Washington, and special writer Mike Clary, in Miami, contributed to this story.