Roundup: Cuba, U.S. geared up for resumption of ties

　　HAVANA/WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- Cuba and the United States bargained heavily as their officials are meeting late Friday in Washington for a second round of talks aiming to normalize bilateral ties.

　　Restoring Cuba-U.S. diplomatic ties in time for a key hemispheric summit in Panama in April depends on Washington's willingness to create the right conditions, a senior Cuban official said Wednesday.

　　Gustavo Machin, deputy director for U.S. affairs at Cuba's Foreign Ministry, told reporters that removing Cuba from a list of countries alleged to be "sponsors of terrorism" was one of the measures.

　　The second measure was removing banking restrictions imposed a year ago on Cuba's diplomatic mission in Washington.

　　Machin said that Cuba considered these preconditions were very important for the two countries to re-establish diplomatic ties and open embassies.

　　The one-day second round of talks between Cuba and the United States, attended by senior officials from both sides, came after the two Cold War era foes announced on Dec. 17 a decision to work to normalize their relations, including opening embassies and exchanging prisoners.

　　Cuba was included in the U.S. State Department terror list in1982, due to Havana's support for leftist guerrilla movements in Latin America.

　　Washington has expressed its willingness to remove the island from the black list, which also includes Iran, Syria and Sudan.

　　A senior State Department official said on Wednesday that the U.S. government has almost completed its review over Cuba's place on its terrorism sponsors list, but it is subject to a Congress approval.

　　The resumption of diplomatic ties should not be linked to the terrorism list, the official said.

　　On removing banking restrictions on Cuba's diplomatic mission in Washington, the official said Washington hoped Cuba would allow U.S. diplomats to move freely around Cuba and meet anyone, including political dissidents.

　　Cuba and the U.S. currently keep an interest section in each other's capital.

　　The U.S. will follow this spirit in the second round of talks, the official said.

　　The U.S. held a historic first round of talks with Cuba last month in Havana, hoping to reach an agreement on reopening embassies in time for the April 10-11 regional summit.

　　The Organization of American States (OAS) will be holding the summit in April in Panama, and both the U.S. and Cuba are expected to attend.

　　Machin has said that "resuming diplomatic ties" and "normalizing the bilateral relationship" are two different things.

　　"If we are going to speak of normalizing ties, the first thing(to do) would be to lift the blockade," he said, referring to the U.S.-led decades-old trade embargo against Cuba. Enditem