Washington - A decision by the US Congress to ease restrictions on travel to Cuba marks a positive step that should be made permanent, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday.

The Senate late Tuesday approved a budget for the remainder of the this fiscal year, which cut off all funding for enforcing travel restrictions imposed under former president George W Bush in 2004.

The change will allow Cuban-American families to visit relatives on the Caribbean island once a year and remain as long as they wish. The 2004 restrictions limited visits to once every three years, for no more than two weeks, and excluded extended family, such as aunts, uncles and cousins.

"Cutting off funding for these cruel restrictions is a step in the right direction," Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

But the eased restrictions only last until September - the end of the 2009 fiscal year - and Vivanco urged President Barack Obama to remove the restrictions on family travel altogether.

"The limits on travel to Cuba have failed completely to bring change to Cuba," Vivanco said.

Obama had spoken during the 2008 presidential campaign of easing elements of the US' more than four-decade long trade embargo against Cuba's communist regime. (dpa)