Castro believes Obama wants to improve ties with Cuba

Havana, April 9 (EFE) Former Cuban president Fidel Castro has said he believes US President Barack Obama wants to improve relations with Cuba, but the US political reality will not make that possible.

Castro said in an article that when one of the lawmakers, Bobby Rush, told him that Obama would need help from Cuba to end the five-decade chill in US-Cuban ties, he replied by observing 'that the objective realities' of the US are 'stronger than Obama's sincere intentions'.

Castro, who formally stepped down as head of state early last year due to health reasons, told Rush Tuesday that Cuba has not been the aggressor between the two nations nor posed any threat to the US.

Both Fidel Castro and his successor, younger brother Raul, said during the visit by the seven members of the Congressional Black Caucus that Havana was willing to enter into a dialogue with Washington.

The lawmakers who met with Castro said he appeared to be in good health.

'Very healthy, very energetic, very clear thinking,' was how Lee described Fidel at a press conference in Washington after the delegation returned from Cuba.

'We believe it is time to open dialogue and discussion with Cuba,' she told reporters. 'Cubans do want dialogue. They do want talks. They do want normal relations.'

The legislators' trip to Cuba came as the US media reported that Obama plans to lift restrictions on Cuban-Americans' travel and remittances to the communist-ruled island, in what could be a first step towards better ties with Havana.

Obama, however, has made it clear that he has no plans to immediately end the economic embargo that Washington imposed on Cuba in 1962.