Historic US-Cuba talks shift to restoring diplomatic ties

She became the first US assistant secretary of state to travel to the communist-led island in 38 years and the highest-ranking visitor in 35 years.

Her Cuban counterpart will be Josefina Vidal, director of the foreign ministry's US affairs, who also participated in the immigration talks.

The meetings are the first since US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced on Dec. 17 they would work to restore diplomatic ties snapped by Washington in 1961.

Despite resistance from some in Congress, Obama has set the United States on a path toward removing economic sanctions and a 53-year-old trade embargo against Cuba.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday he looked forward to formally opening a US embassy in Cuba.

Kerry also said he was prepared, when the time was right, to meet his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez, with whom he has only talked by telephone.

"And when it is timely, when it is appropriate, I look forward to traveling to Cuba in order to formally open an embassy and begin to move forward," Kerry told reporters in Washington.

In his annual State of the Union speech on Tuesday, Obama urged Congress to start work on ending the embargo but critics say Obama first needs to win concessions on Cuban political prisoners and democratic rights, the claims of US citizens whose property was nationalized after Cuba's 1959 revolution, and US fugitives who have received asylum in Cuba.