Cuba accepts immigration talks with U.S.

In what could be another step in the thawing of decades of frigid relations, U.S. officials claimed that Cuba accepted an invite to hold discussions on several topics.

Last week, the White House proposed that U.S. and Cuban diplomats resume biannual negotiations over immigration that had been halted in 2004. According to the State Department, the Castro administration accepted to restart those talks as well as to have new discussions on establishing direct mail service between the two countries. "We and the Cubans have to determine a mutually convenient place and time," said the unnamed official who added that Cuba was willing to discuss other areas of interest such as hurricane preparedness and counternarcotics.

The move comes as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton travels to Central America for the inauguration of Salvadoran president-elect Mauricio Funes tomorrow and Tuesday for a meeting in Honduras of the Organization of American States (OAS). A contentious part of the conference could be whether Cuba should be readmitted to the OAS after a 47-year absence:

U.S. officials say they are ready to support lifting the resolution that suspended Cuba from the OAS, but want to tie readmission to democratic reforms in Cuba. Nicaragua, backed by Venezuela, Bolivia and others, favors an approach that would declare Cuba's expulsion an error and remove all legal hurdles to it regaining its membership.

Diplomats at OAS headquarters in Washington have tried frantically to forge a compromise. Nicaragua has threatened to press for a vote on its proposal.

Image- AFP
Online Sources- ABC News, BBC News, UPI, Reuters