Cuba's communist interim leader Raul Castro, in a shift from the tack of his ailing brother Fidel Castro, on Saturday pushed for negotiations with the United States to end decades of tense ties.
"Of course, that is, as long as they accept that we are a country that does not tolerate any reduction of its independence, and based on the principles of equality, reciprocity, non interference and mutual respect," Raul Castro told troops at Cuba's first military parade in a decade.
"Until that happens, after almost half a century, we are prepared to wait patiently for the moment when common sense takes root in the halls of power in Washington," added Raul Castro.
Raul Castro has been filling in for his brother Fidel, 80, since Fidel Castro - Cuba's leader since 1959 - underwent intestinal surgery in July. The policy of willingness to talk with the United States if respected as an equal is standing Cuban policy.
But Fidel Castro has not reached out to the United States, much less publicly, on a regular basis. And Raul Castro's timing and mentioning the negotiating table - as Cuba is consolidating its changing of the communist guard - suggests some growing autonomy on his part.
His tone, however, did not reflect a change in Cuba's defiant everyday anti-US rhetoric. Raul Castro said the United States was "at a crossroads, with no way out" in its war in Iraq, and that its war on terror on a global level was "marching toward a humiliating defeat."
Cuba, Latin America's only one-party communist regime, and the United States do not have full diplomatic relations. They do have Interests Sections, a diplomatic office, in each other's capital. The United States has had en economic embargo on Cuba since 1962.
Friday Vice President Carlos Lage delivered a firm defence of Cuba's one-party communist system, insisting it would outlive ailing leader Fidel Castro and challenging US calls for change. Lage, also vice president of the Council of State, told hundreds of supporters at a closing gala for celebrations honouring Fidel Castro's 80th birthday that: "We will have one party."
"But I'm not talking about today, I am talking about the future. "In Cuba, there will be no succession. There will be continuity. There will not be another Fidel Castro. No one will imitate him; many will follow him. .. There will not be ambitions, or ego trips... We will not allow that," Lage added.
"When Fidel is no longer with us, his work, his ideas and his example will be," he said, adding: "Fidel is recovering. We will have him among us, he will continue to guide us. We are going to ask him to keep doing it for a few more years." The US State Department has criticised the replacement of one Castro by another and said Cubans should have the opportunity for democratic change.
"We think the Cuban people need to be given the opportunity to see and have democratic change. We believe that is what the Cuban people would like to have," Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman, said in Washington this week.
"The creation of some sort of Castro dynasty simply by transferring power to Raul Castro and having him continue to operate the same undemocratic, repressive policies as his brother is certainly not a solution that we think is viable," Casey said, adding that the United States was ready to help.
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