Obama offers talks to Cuba to break hostility

US President Barack Obama seized on an extraordinary overture from Cuba to propose talks aimed at breaking the half-century hostility born between Washington and Havana during the Cold War.
He told a Summit of the Americas with Latin American leaders in Trinidad and Tobago on Friday that he wanted to establish "a new beginning" with Cuba that would recognise past US "errors," but require reciprocal gestures from the communist island.
The conciliatory language raised the prospect of the United States considering ending to its 47-year-old embargo on Cuba.
Several other leaders at the summit -- including those from Argentina, Nicaragua and Belize -- voiced a general consensus in Latin America that the embargo should be scrapped and Cuba readmitted into regional bodies.
The summit was to get into full swing on Saturday. The three-day gathering of 34 countries in the Americas -- all, in fact, except Cuba -- was meant to address common energy, environmental and public security challenges in a succession of plenary sessions.
But an unexpected gesture of conciliation by Obama towards Cuba on the first day, Friday, overshadowed those issues.
"I am prepared to have my administration engage with the Cuban government on a wide range of issues -- from drugs to migration and economic issues to human rights, free speech and democratic reform," the US president said.
The proposal came after a surprise overture from Cuban President Raul Castro, who on Thursday said he now stood ready to discuss "everything" with Washington -- including specifically the hot-button issues of human rights, press freedom and political prisoners.
The only condition was that US officials respect Cuba's self-determination and treat its representatives as equals.
Obama, who early this week lifted curbs on Cuba-Americans' contacts with Cuba, said Havana still had to give some concrete signs it was willing to engage.
He stressed, though, that the United States had changed from its Cold War days, and was "willing to acknowledge past errors, where those errors have been made."
He stopped short of discussing the possibility of lifting the 47-year-old embargo.
But several Latin American nations and delegates at the summit voiced a general agreement that the embargo should go and Cuba be readmitted into regional bodies such as the Organization of American States, from which it was expelled under US pressure in 1962.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Cuba's closest and most vocal ally, offered an opportunity for another gesture of conciliation at the summit, briefly shaking hands with Obama late Friday.
A photograph of the moment was quickly distributed by Venezuelan officials, one of whom said Chavez told Obama in Spanish: "I shook hands with (former US president George W.) Bush with this hand eight years ago. I want to be your friend."
Obama responded by thanking Chavez in English, the official said, admitting the encounter had been "brief."
Saturday's summit group photo and working sessions were to afford more interaction between Obama and Latin American counterparts.
Obama will meet face to face with a dozen of his counterparts from South America, including more fervent critics of the United States such as Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Evo Morales of Bolivia.
Overall, Obama has received a warmer welcome than that given Bush at the last Americas summit, in Argentina in 2005. The former president had to dodge anti-US protesters and left early after an altercation with Chavez.
The current summit in Trinidad wraps up just after midday (1600 GMT) on Sunday.