US keeps Cuba on state sponsors of terror list

WASHINGTON: The United States kept Cuba on its list of state sponsors of terrorism in an annual report issued Thursday, in the latest indication that ties between the two foes remain sour.

"The government of Cuba maintained a public stance against terrorism and terrorist financing in 2010, but there was no evidence that it had severed ties with elements from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)," the State Department said.

It pointed to reports that current and former members of the Basque separatist group ETA live in Cuba.

Washington designated Cuba a state sponsor of terror in 1982, under the presidency of Ronald Reagan. The United States and Cuba have not operated embassies in each other's country since the 1959 Cuban revolution that swept Fidel Castro into power, and are represented instead by interests sections.

Washington is especially upset over the 15-year prison sentence imposed this year on US contractor Alan Gross, 62, who has been in jail since his 2009 arrest on charges of espionage. Cuba's high court recently upheld the sentence.

And for the past decade, Havana has urged Washington to release five of its agents arrested in the United States in 1998 and later given heavy prison sentences for infiltrating anti-Castro circles in Florida. (AFP)