Washington, Apr. 30 : Cuban strongman Raul Castro has said that it is the United States that needs to come forward with gestures to show that it is keen on improving relations with Cuba.

Echoing his ailing older brother Fidel, the Daily News quoted Cuban President Raul Castro as saying: "Cuba has not imposed sanctions against the U. S." and "therefore it is not Cuba that has to make gestures."

Havana - Cuba suspended Tuesday all flights to and from Mexico for 48 hours to prevent spread of the flu virus which has caused 152 deaths in Mexico, including at least 20 from a newly emerging swine flu virus, Cuba's Public Health Minister Jose Ramon Balaguer said in a statement. The Cuban government said earlier Tuesday that no cases of swine flu had been reported in the country and that there were also no suspected cases, although they increased health surveillance at airports and ports.

Madrid - Colombian President Alvaro Uribe on Tuesday defended Cuba's reintegration into the Inter-American Community from which the island was excluded in 1962 because of its communist regime. "The process of Cuba's integration into the entire Inter-American Community must begin," Uribe said at an economic forum in Madrid.

The Colombian president arrived in Spain on Tuesday for a two-day working visit, during which he was scheduled to meet Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, King Juan Carlos and entrepreneurs.

Washington - US and Cuban diplomats were to meet on Monday for the second round of talks on improving relations between the two countries since President Barack Obama took office. Assistant Secretary of State Tom Shannon was to hold talks with the top Cuban representative in Washington, Jorge Alberto Bolanos, just two weeks after Obama announced an easing of sanctions on the communist island.

Havana  - Traditional Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Monday complained that the weekend Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago was held in "secret."

But at the same time, amid a dawning - though as yet far from complete - thaw in US-Cuban relations, Castro had some praise for US President Barack Obama.

"His predecessor (George W Bush) went to sleep early and slept many hours. It seems that Obama works a lot and sleeps little," he quipped in an article published on the website Cubadebate.

Port of Spain  - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday praised improving ties between the United States and communist Cuba, which have been troubled for close to half a century.

"We have noted with interest the change of direction by the new US administration," Ban said at the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago.

"It is a sign of changing times, of fresh winds blowing, in ways large and small," he said.