PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad -- The lone country in the hemisphere that's not a member of the Organization of American States -- Cuba -- promises to take center stage here, as more and more Latin American nations insist that the days of the communist country's isolation should be numbered.

The Fifth Summit of the Americas appears to be just the forum hemispheric leaders have chosen to raise the contentious issue. The summit was first held in Miami 15 years ago, but this is the first time pressure has been so strong to bring Cuba back into the regional alliance.

''I want to be clear: I want Cuba back in the Interamerican system,'' OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza said. ``I think it was a bad idea in the first place. . . . Cuba is a member of the OAS. Its flag is there.''

Insulza has supported Cuba's reincorporation into the group before, but experts say he often ''played footsie'' with the divisive topic and failed to outline a clear position.

In an interview Thursday with The Miami Herald, the organization's chief said he unequivocally supports Cuba's renewed membership in the OAS -- despite a democracy clause adopted by the group in 2001.

Thirty-four heads of government will arrive in Trinidad for a three-day summit that starts Friday, ostensibly to discuss issues such as energy, security and climate change. Two elephants in the room -- Cuba and the global economic crisis -- promise to dominate the agenda.

Insulza stressed he hoped the Cuba issue would be pushed back to the OAS General Assembly to be held in Honduras in June, and not be taken up here.

Cuba was suspended from the OAS at Washington's behest in 1962. The reason: its alliance with the Soviet Union.

`BAD IDEA'

Insulza said that since the grounds for Cuba's suspension are outdated and were a ''bad idea in the first place,'' the hemisphere's last remaining communist nation should be welcomed back, despite an OAS clause that says the people of the Americas ``have a right to democracy and their governments have an obligation to promote and defend it.''

Insulza said he was ``concerned that we still have standing a resolution that punishes a country for being a member of the Soviet-Chinese axis, for being Marxist-Leninist and several other things from the cold war.''

The secretary general's position will be difficult for some member states to accept, particularly since the organization adopted the democratic charter with much fanfare. Insulza acknowledged that the democratic charter would be hard for Cuba to swallow.

''Since Obama's election, Insulza has openly joined the ranks of Latin American leaders calling for Cuba to be included in the Inter-American system, although Cuba's full membership in the OAS would need to be reconciled with the Inter-American Democratic Charter signed in 2001,'' said Cuba expert Daniel P. Erikson, author of the recent book The Cuba Wars.

'If Cuba became a full member without accepting democratic standards and norms, it would badly weaken the OAS' credibility as a defender of democracy in the hemisphere.''

Retired Cuban leader Fidel Castro has already rejected the notion of reintegration into the organization.

''Insulza claims that, to enter the OAS, Cuba first has to be accepted by that institution,'' Castro wrote in a recent news column. ``He knows that we don't even want to hear the infamous name of that institution. It has not provided a single service to our people; it is the incarnation of betrayal. If you add up all the aggressive actions in which it was an accomplice, they amount to hundreds of lives and tens of bloody years.''

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