'Cuba offers to start talks with US'

US blockade has cost Cuba $975 billion:

UN: The US blockade of Cuba has cost the communist island $975 billion dollars, its foreign minister said Monday, making a new offer to start talks with the US administration.

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parilla told the UN General Assembly in his annual speech that the United States has "intensified" efforts to overthrow the government. The US embargo on Cuba was first partially imposed in 1960 - just after Fidel Castro staged his revolution - and remains in force with the United States banning most trade and most travel to the Caribbean island.

Rodriguez said the embargo has been "tightened" and "the damage it has caused total $975 billion, according to the present gold price."

"Attempts to subvert the constitutional order that Cubans have free elected have intensified," he added.

But the minister also said "The Cuban government reiterates its willingness and interest to move towards the normalization of relations with the United States." He proposed talks on humanitarian issues as well as cooperation on countering the drugs trade, terrorism and people smuggling.

"However we know that the electoral race has already begun in this country while the economic situation is getting worse," Rodriguez said. US President Barack Obama in 2009 reversed the restrictions on immediate family travel and allowed Cuban Americans to send remittances to relatives. AFP