AKIPRESS.COM - Cuba has demanded the U.S. hand back the Guantanamo Bay military base before relations with Washington are normalised.
In a speech, President Raul Castro also called for the lifting of the US trade embargo and Cuba's removal from a terror list.
Last month the two countries announced a thaw in relations, agreeing to restore diplomatic ties. They were severed in 1961.
High-level talks were held last week.
A Congressional delegation arrived in Havana to begin negotiations aimed at reopening embassies in the two countries' capitals.
Meanwhile, former Cuban leader Fidel Castro appeared to signal his approval for the political rapprochement.
Cuba's state-run newspaper published a letter on Tuesday in which he wrote: "We will always defend co-operation and friendship with all the people of the world, including with our political adversaries."
He wrote that although he did not "trust the policy of the US", it did not mean he rejected a "peaceful solution to conflicts", reports BBC.