Washington - US President Barack Obama on Monday lifted all restrictions on Cuban Americans travelling and sending money back to their home country as part of a much-anticipated reversal of US policies toward Cuba. In an executive order, Obama will also expand communications links and allow more humanitarian donations to be sent to Cuba in what the White House billed as an effort to encourage a Democratic transition on the Communist island.

"President Obama believes the measure he has taken today will help make that goal a reality," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

The shift does not mark an end to the US' decades-long trade embargo against Cuba and keeps in place travel restrictions for most non-Cuban Americans.

But the new policy does lift relatively all restrictions on Cuban- Americans in their relations with family members on the Caribbean island just off the coast of Florida.

"The United States is getting out of the business of regulating relationships between Cuban families," said Dan Restrepo, a White House advisor on Latin America.

US telecommunications companies will also be allowed to reach agreements to provide fiber-optic cables and satellite communications in Cuba. The White House said expanding communications within the island could help open up Cuban society.

Obama has in the past signalled he wants to improve ties with Cuba and advocated relaxing travel restrictions during the 2008 presidential campaign.

The White House also sees an opportunity to influence Cuba since Raul Castro took over as president from his brother Fidel in February 2007.

Human Rights Watch welcomed the announcement but urged Obama to relax travel for all Americans and work more closely with the international community.

If President Obama is serious about promoting change in Cuba, this executive order must be part of a larger shift away from the US unilateral approach toward the Cuban government," said Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director at rights group. Only by working with its allies in Latin American and Europe will the US be able to chip away at Castro's repressive machinery."

The relaxations were announced by the White House just days before Obama's trip to a summit of North and South American leaders in Trinidad and Tobago.

Cuban officials will not be attending the gathering, but how to deal with the Communist island will be one of the central issues for the Western hemisphere leaders.

Obama's changes also mark a shift from the more hardline stance of former president George W Bush, who in 2004 limited visits by Cuban- Americans to once every three years, for no more than two weeks, and excluded extended family, such as aunts, uncles and cousins.

Those restrictions were lifted temporarily last month by the US Congress, which cut off all funding for enforcing the travel limits until September.

But Obama's new policy could still run into trouble in the US Congress, where many lawmakers remain steadfastly opposed to opening up US markets to Cuba.

However, a bipartisan group of lawmakers also introduced legislation last month that goes much farther than Obama, easing travel restrictions to the island for all Americans.(dpa)