Spanish minister visits Cuba, breaks ice

FIRMING TIES: Spain's Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos (L) with his Cuban counterpart Felipe Perez Roque.

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Havana: Spain's foreign minister visited Cuba on Monday in a possible first step toward thawing relations between Cuba and the European Union, frozen since a 2003 dispute over dissident arrests.

Miguel Angel Moratinos, the most senior EU government official to go to the communist-run island since the dispute, will meet on Tuesday with acting President Raul Castro, who took over in July after Fidel Castro underwent stomach surgery.

On Monday, Moratinos met with Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, who said his visit opened "a new path" in Cuban-Spanish relations and possibly in Cuban-EU relations. He also said there could be cooperation in human rights.

"We have broached the theme, and we are making progress, of establishing a permanent and formal mechanism for political dialogue, which doesn't exclude the subject of international cooperation to promote human rights," Perez Roque told reporters during a reception at the Spanish ambassador's residence.

EU governments and human rights groups repeatedly criticise Cuba for trampling on human rights and repressing dissent.

Havana says Cuba's small and fractious dissident movement is made up of "mercenaries" on the payroll of its longtime ideological enemy, the US government.

Moratinos said it was time to reopen communication.

"It's absolutely unthinkable that Spain cannot maintain, defend and develop an intense, constructive and communicative policy with the Cuban authorities," he said.

"We also want what should be a relationship between the European Union and Cuba."