Obama says US to start normalising Cuba relations

(ANSA) - New York, December 17 - United States President Barack Obama said Wednesday that "we will start to normalise our relations with Cuba". He added: "we'll put an end to this outdated approach to Cuba... I have given Secretary of State John Kerry the mandate to launch immediate negotiations to revive the dialogue that stopped in 1961". Obama gave a television address after a prisoner swap deal involving the release of American Alan Gross by Cuba and three Cubans convicted of spying in the US.