Cuba's envoy failed to get the country out of the United States terrorism blacklist during talks this week with counterparts in Washington.

Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio and Latin America officials at the US State Department and White House, Brian Nichols and Juan Gonzales, engaged in high-level talks this week on "human rights, migration and other issues of bilateral interest" but did not touch the blacklisting issue, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Thursday.

In March, Secretary of State Antony Blinken indicated to Congress that the administration had no plans to remove Cuba from the blacklist, which creates serious impediments to foreign investment.

Former president Barack Obama restored US relations with Cuba, frozen since 1962 after Fidel Castro's turn to communism, and paid a landmark visit in 2016.

Obama's successor Donald Trump reversed many steps to reconcile and his administration, in one of its final acts, put Cuba back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism whose only other members are Iran, Syria and North Korea.

The Trump administration made its determination without linking Cuba to any recent terrorist actions. It instead faulted Havana's refusal to extradite leaders of Colombia's National Liberation Army to the then right-wing government in Bogota.

   WITH AFP