Brussels - The European Union executive on Wednesday welcomed Cuba's decision to re-open diplomatic dialogue with the bloc following the lifting of EU sanctions, officials in Brussels said.

"We see that as a positive step and we welcome their reaction to the eventual re-establishment of a political dialogue," a spokesman for EU aid commissioner Louis Michel said.

Michel is due to visit Cuba around October 22-25, he said.

The Cuban government under new leader Raul Castro has approached the European Union about a resumption of the political dialogue halted since 2003, EU representative in Havana Javier Nino told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa late Tuesday.

The communist regime expressed its interest in renewing the dialogue with the EU, in a letter handed over earlier this month at the embassy of France, current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, Nino said in response to a dpa inquiry.

That move followed the EU's decision on June 20 to lift its diplomatic sanctions against Cuba in an effort to encourage Castro to boost human rights.

The sanctions included limits on high-level government visits and the role of EU diplomats in Cuba's cultural events.

The June move was largely symbolic, since the EU had already suspended the sanctions in 2005. (dpa)