US Flag Raised Over Reopened Embassy In Cuba

Secretary of State John Kerry has hailed a "truly memorable day" as he saw the US flag raised over the reopened American embassy in Havana for the first time in 54 years.

Three US Marines who lowered the Stars and Stripes in 1961 were in the Cuban capital to help hoist the flag again at the ceremony. One of them openly wept.

Hundreds of Cubans gathered from the early hours outside the seafront mission to witness the historic day, some of them cheering as Old Glory ran up the pole to sound of the US national anthem.

Mr Kerry credited US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro for making "the courageous decision to stop being the prisoners of history".

The two leaders announced last December they would restore diplomatic ties between the two nations.

"The road of mutual isolation and estrangement that the US and Cuba have been travelling is not the right one," said Mr Kerry, the first US Secretary of State to visit Cuba in 70 years.

He also said the "people of Cuba would be best served by a genuine democracy", saying their country did not meet international standards of openness.

Mr Kerry said later the US and Cuba would begin talks on a "full normalisation" of ties in mid-September.

The seven-storey embassy building in the Cuban capital was closed from 1961 until 1977, when it was reopened as an interests section.

Cuba reopened its embassy in Washington DC last month.

State television switched to live coverage of Mr Kerry's arrival in Havana followed by a flattering profile of his career.

The biography noted his service in Vietnam, his 2004 presidential run and work as secretary of state.

The Cuban network also informed viewers that Mr Kerry "is a Roman Catholic, likes bicycling, surfing and windsurfing".

Mr Obama has relaxed some of the travel and trade restrictions to Cuba, but the Republican-controlled Congress has resisted his call to end the US economic embargo.

His administration has argued that the long-standing policy of trying to force change in communist Cuba through isolation has failed.

Republican presidential candidates took turns criticising the rapprochement.

Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, said the move ensures Havana will get "a substantial economic boost to benefit its repression".

Jeb Bush said it was "a birthday present for Fidel Castro - a symbol of the Obama administration's acquiescence to his ruthless legacy".

Diplomats will now work on expanding economic ties between the two nations, including reintroducing direct flights and a mail service.

The US wants to resolve claims over property confiscated by the Cuban government after the 1959 revolution, which amount to billions of dollars.

Former Cuban president Fidel Castro, writing in a newspaper column on Thursday, said the US owes the country "numerous millions of dollars" for damages caused by its decades-long embargo .

He also called for the return of the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay - Mr Obama has struggled to deliver on a promise to close the prison there.