Havana ? The Cuban government has signed a new round of contracts to buy $32 million of food from American agricultural firms, a trade group said Monday  a move sure to whet the appetites of U.S. food companies eager to increase their sales to the island.

Cuba last year agreed to buy $35 million in American food to replenish its reserves after Hurricane Michelle battered the island in early November. The communist government at first said it would not buy any more U.S. food, then hinted it might  especially if it saw positive signs from Washington.

The second round of sales has no link to the hurricane, the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council said in its newsletter, released Monday.

There was no immediate word from the Cuban government, but Havana authorities said last month that they could purchase another $35 million worth of American food under the right circumstances.

Under one deal in this second round, Archer Daniels Midland Co., based in Decatur, Ill., will sell Cuba about 150,000 tons of wheat, soy, corn and rice, worth $17.5 million, for delivery beginning next month, the council newsletter said.

The Cuban food import company Alimport also is contracting with other American companies as well as an American subsidiary of a French company to buy additional grain and poultry, it added.

Agreeing to buy more food “will certainly influence positively the level of interest toward Cuba by U.S. companies, organizations, and the public sector,” said council president John Kavulich.

The United States has maintained an embargo of Cuba for the past four decades, but a U.S. law that went into effect in 2000 made it possible for American producers to sell food directly to the island.

However, the law prohibited U.S. public or private financing for the sales. Cuba resents the financing restrictions and refused for nearly a year to buy American food  until the hurricane struck.

In November 2001, Archer Daniels Midland became the first U.S.-based company to sell food directly from the United States to Cuba since 1963.

Since then, American companies have been pushing to sell more food and members of Congress have advocated legislation to allow U.S. financing for those sales.