Cuba agrees to resume talks with the Obama administration

Cuba has agreed to resume talks with the Obama administration on legal immigration of Cubans to the United States and direct mail service between the two countries, a State Department official said Sunday.

The announcement came as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepared to attend Tuesday's Organization of American States (OAS) general assembly in Honduras, where Washington and its southern neighbors have been caught in a row over the pace of normalization with Cuba.

The Cuban government informed Washington on Saturday that it "would like to resume migration talks.... (and) engage in talks on direct mail service," the senior State Department official told reporters on the condition of anonymity.

"We and the Cubans have to determine a mutually convenient place and time," he added.

The official said the Cubans "also indicated they would like to explore areas of additional dialogue," such as in counter-narcotics, counter-terrorism, hurricane and disaster preparedness response.

US officials said May 23 that the Obama administration had proposed to resume the discussions on migration issues, which had been conducted every two years until they were suspended in 2003 by former president George W. Bush.

In April, President Barack Obama rescinded restrictions on travel to Cuba by Americans with family there and on the amount of money they can send to their relatives on the island.

The latest development comes ahead of Clinton's participation at a meeting Tuesday in Honduras where Cuba's possible readmission to the Organization of American States is expected to be discussed.

U.S. officials say they are ready to support lifting the resolution that suspended Cuba from the 34-country group. But they insist on linking the island's readmission to democratic reforms under a charter the organization adopted in 2001.

"This is going to be a complicated challenge for her (Clinton) to deal with," said Michael Shifter, an analyst for the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank.

"I sense the Obama people are a little bit nervous. I think they're aware that it's a minefield, Cuba," said Shifter.

Clinton was preparing to leave Sunday for El Salvador to attend Monday's inauguration of Mauricio Funes, the first stop on a two-country tour.

Gay Radar : Eduardo Tesch