* Obama hopes to mend battered U.S. image in Americas
* Cuba not on formal agenda but could color summit debate
* U.S. wants to avoid past America-bashing
By Pascal Fletcher
PORT OF SPAIN, April 16 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama hopes to win over Latin American and Caribbean leaders at a summit this week to head off heavy criticism of U.S. policy on Cuba and halt the America-bashing of recent years.
The Fifth Summit of the Americas starting on Friday in Trinidad and Tobago falls exactly on the anniversary of one of the worst U.S. foreign policy fiascos in recent history, the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.
Cuba's revolutionary leader Fidel Castro routed CIA-supported Cuban exiles who led the invasion on April 17-19 1961. His victory consolidated communist rule 90 miles (140 km) from U.S. shores and marked a low point in U.S. diplomacy.
The Port of Spain summit gives Obama an opportunity to mend the battered U.S. image in Latin America and avoid the virulent criticism of Washington's policies that roiled regional meetings in the recent past.
The last Americas summit in Mar de Plata, Argentina in 2005 ended in noisy discord with left-wing allies of Cuba like Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez pillorying the policies of Obama's conservative predecessor George W. Bush.
Washington wants the Trinidad summit to focus on tackling the global economic crisis that threatens to reverse recent growth in Latin America and the Caribbean and to send millions back into poverty.
But while conspicuously absent from the formal summit table and agenda in Trinidad, Cuba may still loom awkwardly large, although just how divisively remains to be seen.
In the buildup to the summit, regional leaders like President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Venezuela's voluble Chavez have chorused their opposition to Washington's long-standing policy of trying to isolate Cuba.
While U.S officials say they don't want leaders to be "distracted" by the sensitive issue, Chavez has pledged to demand an end to the 47-year-old U.S. embargo against Cuba as well as the country's return to regional groups.
In an op-ed article on Thursday, Obama himself urged the Americas not to get bogged down in old debates.
"We must choose the future over the past, because we know that the future holds enormous opportunities if we work together," he wrote, calling for a partnership "on fundamental issues like economic recovery, energy and security".
"SYMPATHETIC EAR, NOT WAGGING FINGER"
Analysts say Obama will need to convince the hemisphere's 33 other democratically elected leaders in Trinidad that the era of Washington flexing its muscles and dictating policy - including on Cuba -- to its "back yard" has passed.
"He'll be looking to show a sympathetic ear and not a wagging finger," said Julia Sweig, Director for Latin American Studies at the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations.
Sweig predicted that rather than announcing any spectacular new policy initiatives, Obama would concentrate more on showing a friendly face and offering dialogue and cooperation.
"The bar is pretty low after Mar de Plata, so if they walk away avoiding a cacophonous festival of America-bashing, and also if Obama leaves the impression that he takes the region seriously ... I think that's quite enough," she told Reuters.
But the Cuba issue remains a point of discord.
While some Latin American states, including Brazil, argue Cuba should be allowed back into the Organization of American States (OAS), the hemisphere's diplomatic body, the United States and Canada insist Havana would first have to meet minimum standards on human rights and democracy.
Cuba was suspended from the 35-member OAS in 1962 because the communist system created by Castro after he took power in a 1959 revolution was judged incompatible with OAS principles.
Obama's administration moved to address the Cuba issue on Monday by lifting restrictions on Cuban American travel and remittances to the island -- a small step which opponents of the U.S. embargo hope will lead to a wider relaxation.
But Obama says Washington also expects reciprocal steps from Cuba toward improving human and political rights for its people. "We expect all of our friends in the hemisphere to join together in supporting liberty, equality, and human rights for all Cubans," he wrote in his op-ed piece.
Fidel Castro, who stepped down as Cuban president last year but remains a power behind the scenes, welcomed Obama's travel measures as a positive, albeit small step toward improved U.S.-Cuba relations. But he dismissed any suggestions that Cuba might want to rejoin the OAS, which he has long denounced as a tool of Washington.
This is the first Summit of the Americas to be held in the Caribbean, whose leaders hope the Cuba issue will not distract attention from the needs of their vulnerable economies.
"The issue that will take priority is the international economic recovery, to the extent the United States is able to recover, which will lead to improvements in the fortunes of the Caribbean and Latin American countries," said Trinidadian Dr. Anthony Bryan, a member of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. (Additional reporting by Linda Hutchinson-Jafar; editing by Kieran Murray)