Cuba May Be Taken Off Terror Sponsor List

The US may take Cuba off its state terror sponsors' list, as relations between the two countries continue to thaw.

The news comes as the old foes held their highest-level meeting in more than 50 years - US Secretary of State John Kerry and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez met in Panama on Thursday while attending a regional summit.

On Friday, Barack Obama will cross paths with Raul Castro as both presidents are also attending the Summit of the Americas.

The two leaders have no formal meetings scheduled together, but it will be the first time the two will come face to face since an announcement in December that their two countries will seek to normalise relations.

Even a brief handshake or hallway greeting will be scrutinised for signs of whether the two nations are really poised to put their hostile pasts behind them after almost 50 years of hostilities.

While in Jamaica on Wednesday, Mr Obama signalled that he will soon act to remove Cuba from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, removing a stigma that has been a source of friction for Havana.

That move could come within days, and would clear a major obstacle in the effort to restore diplomatic relations between Washington and Havana, paving the way for the reopening of embassies that have been shut for 54 years.

"We don't want to be imprisoned by the past," the US leader said.

"When something doesn't work for 50 years, you don't just keep on doing it. You try something new."

Relations between the two countries deteriorated back in 1959 when Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries seized control, forcing US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista to flee.

Cuba was added to the list of terrorism sponsors in 1982, when it was aiding Marxist insurgencies in Colombia and elsewhere. Other countries on the list include Iran, Sudan and Syria.