U.S. wants bold Cuban reforms before engagement

By Sue Pleming and Arshad Mohammed

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cuba must make bolder reforms, free political prisoners and improve human rights before Washington can engage President Raul Castro and end a half-century of isolation, a U.S. official said on Friday.

In an interview with Reuters as part of a Latin American summit series, the State Department's top diplomat for the region, Tom Shannon, said recent reforms in Cuba showed pressure for change was building inside the communist island.

"These things, as small as they are, are good but they are clearly not enough from our point of view," said Shannon, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs.

Raul Castro, since officially succeeding his ailing brother Fidel Castro as president in February, has begun lifting some of the state's economic restrictions.

Cubans can now buy computers, DVDs and other products, stay at tourist resorts and access cell phone service, all previously off-limits.

Shannon said changes could not just be about what Cubans could buy.

"We would urge the Cubans to be bolder, more audacious in their reform, and to ensure that as they undertake these reforms, that they build in a human rights and democracy ... component," said Shannon.

Washington broke off diplomatic relations with Havana in 1961, two years after Fidel Castro seized power in a revolution and turned Cuba into a communist state.  Continued...