Shift in Cuba policy can end legacy of mistrust: Barack Obama

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama today said a shift in US' decades old Cuba policy has the potential to end a legacy of mistrust in the American hemisphere and called on the Congress to end an embargo on the communist-ruled nation.

"Our shift in Cuba policy has the potential to end a legacy of mistrust in our hemisphere; removes a phony excuse for restrictions in Cuba; stands up for democratic values; and extends the hand of friendship to the Cuban people," said the US President in his State of the Union Address to a joint session of the Congress.

"And this year, Congress should begin the work of ending the embargo," Obama said noting that in Cuba the US is ending a policy that was long past its expiration date.

"As His Holiness, Pope Francis, has said, diplomacy is the work of 'small steps'. These small steps have added up to new hope for the future in Cuba," Obama said as he welcomed the US national Alan Gross who was recently released from the Cuban prison.

Obama had announced a series of steps aimed at normalising relations with communist-ruled Cuba, with which the US had severed diplomatic ties decades ago imposing a series of sanctions on its island neighbour.

The steps being taken include instructions to re-establish the US Embassy in Cuban capital Havana, relaxing of trade and travel restrictions and review of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism.