MIAMI - Barack Obama's desire to ease U.S.-Cuba travel restrictions stands in contrast to the stances of Democratic presidential rival Hillary Rodham Clinton and most of the Republican contenders.

The question is whether his position will help him in Florida.

Cuban-Americans make up a small but growing number of Democrats in this swing state, but most are still either Republicans or independents, meaning they will have little say in the party's Jan. 29 primary.

Many Cuban-Americans also remain conflicted about the Bush administration's 2004 restrictions that slashed the amount of money they can send and cut the number of visits they can make to families on the island. They want to be able to travel home and help their needy relatives, but they also want to see ailing Fidel Castro's communist government fall.

The Bush administration says the restrictions, on top of the government's 45-year-old economic embargo against Cuba, promote such change. But Obama disagrees.

"The primary means we have of encouraging positive change in Cuba today is to help the Cuban people become less dependent on the Castro regime in fundamental ways," the Illinois senator wrote in an op-ed piece published in Tuesday's Miami Herald.

Clinton, the New York senator and Democratic front-runner, issued a statement reiterating her support for the current policy toward Cuba, adding, "Until it is clear what type of policies might come with a new government, we cannot talk about changes in the U.S. policies toward Cuba."

She has recently sought to portray Obama as naive on foreign policy