Obama to ease Cuba travel restrictions

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Monday will ease limits on family travel and cash gifts from the United States to Cuba and allow U.S. telecommunications firms to bid for licenses on the communist-ruled island, a U.S. official said.

The decision does not lift Washington's trade embargo with Cuba though it does open a crack in the bulwark set up more than four decades ago and maintained by successive U.S. administrations.

The move also fulfills one of Obama's campaign promises to allow Cuban Americans to travel more freely to Cuba and increase financial help to family members there, and could herald improved ties between the two longtime foes.

Supporters of easing U.S. sanctions against Cuba welcomed the move, which will affect an estimated 1.5 million Americans who have family members in Cuba, as "ground breaking".

They said they hoped it would lead to even bolder steps by Obama to dismantle the 47-year-old U.S. trade embargo against the communist-ruled island, which critics argue is an obsolete policy that has failed to foster change in Cuba.

Cubans living in the United States are currently allowed to travel to the island only once a year and are limited to send only $1,200 per person in cash to needy family members in Cuba.

Obama's gesture appeared intended to signal a new attitude towards both Cuba and other Latin American countries that have pressed Washington to end a trade embargo that has sought to isolate Havana for more than four decades.

It also comes ahead of Obama's attendance at a Summit of the Americas in Trinidad later this week.

Cuba is among the U.S. foes Obama has said he would be willing to engage diplomatically, instead of shunning them as his predecessor George W. Bush did.

Under the policy shift to be unveiled on Monday, Obama also planned to announce that U.S. telecommunications companies would be allowed to apply for licenses in Cuba. It was unclear, however, the extent to which this restriction would be eased.

Obama could face some resistance in Congress, especially from opposition Republicans.

Representatives Frank Wolf and Chris Smith last week urged Obama to insist that Cuba release all political detainees before the United States moves to relax trade and travel restrictions.

During last year's presidential campaign, Obama favored easing of some U.S. limits on family travel and remittances, but said he would not eliminate the trade embargo until Cuba shows progress towards democracy and greater human rights.

(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick, Editing by Anthony Boadle)