BRUSSELS,(Reuters) - Diplomatic cocktails in Havana will a rather modest affair if European Union ministers accept recommendations by officials on Tuesday to break a deadlock in relations with Cuba.

Foreign ministers will be asked in January to agree to scale down or scrap National Day receptions, at least temporarily, to end a stand-off over invitations to dissidents which led the communist government to freeze out European diplomats.

"It's up to ministers to decide but it might come down to holding rather small-sized, scaled-down national day celebrations without inviting either the authorities or dissidents," a spokesman for the EU's Dutch presidency said.

The recommendation by a working group of national experts on Latin America policy came after Cuba freed 14 out of 75 dissidents arrested last year and hinted that more releases are on the way.

The EU policy of inviting political opponents to National Day parties so incensed the Cuban government that it shut its doors to European diplomats, shunned ambassadors and did not return telephone calls.

Spain's Socialist government, keen to end the row and develop more constructive relations, took the lead in seeking a review of the 25-nation bloc's policy towards its former colony.

Several EU members, including Germany and most ex-communist east European states, argued that Cuban President Fidel Castro should make the first move by releasing political prisoners.

CLIMBDOWN TO CASTRO?

To allay any impression of a climbdown, the EU would continue to press for the release of all political detainees and intensify contacts with dissidents and civil society in parallel with moves to ease diplomatic tensions, the spokesman said.

"We reaffirmed the consensus of all member states that the main aims of the Union should be the release of all 75 political prisoners and the re-establishing of full diplomatic relations between EU states and Cuba which have been frozen by the Cuban side," he said.

A senior Cuban official told Reuters last week he expected Havana to release more dissidents following the first moves which diplomats saw as an attempt to thaw ties with Europe.

Asked in an interview in Caracas whether the releases would continue, National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon said: "I'm sure they will. It would be very unusual if the rest (of the 75) completed all of their sentences."

The United States recently stepped up its economic embargo of Cuba, restricting visits by Cuban exiles to their families. Havana responded by barring the use of the U.S. dollar in Cuba and forcing Cubans to convert their holdings into pesos.

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