WASHINGTON: US and Cuban negotiators launch a second round of historic talks on Friday aimed at overcoming half a century of enmity and restoring full diplomatic ties.
After an initial meeting in Havana in January which ended with little apparent breakthrough, the teams were to meet at the State Department -- the hub of US global diplomacy.
The hope is that within the coming months both nations will agree to reopen embassies in each other's capitals and appoint fully-fledged ambassadors. Currently they operate with so-called interests sections in Havana and Washington.
US President Barack Obama is due to attend the Summit of the Americas in Panama on April 10-11, which Cuba will also attend for the first time.
And observers believe both nations, long mired in tension stemming from the Cold War, are keen to relaunch full diplomatic relations around that date.
But after more than five decades of hostility and suspicion, steep obstacles remain to renewing diplomatic ties.
This is seen as the first step towards a full normalization of relations between the United States and the communist-run Caribbean island which has been governed for five decades by revolutionary leader Fidel Castro and his brother, now President Raul Castro.
Ahead of the talks, both sides staked out their differences.
Cuban officials demanded that as a preliminary step Havana be stripped of its US designation as a state sponsor of terrorism -- a label which has stalked the island since 1982, and which among other sanctions has complicated access to the global banking system.
Washington, however, has insisted that its ongoing review of the terror blacklisting should not be linked to the restoration of diplomatic ties.
In return, the US has insisted that its diplomats and embassy be granted full powers under the Vienna Convention governing global diplomatic relations to operate freely, including meeting with Cuban dissidents.
The US team will be led by the Assistant Secretary for the Western Hemisphere, Roberta Jacobson, who last month became the highest-ranking US official to visit Cuba in 35 years.
She will be sitting across the table from Cuban negotiator Josefina Vidal.
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