The United States on Thursday welcomed Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Cuba as a way to promote human rights but defended its half-century embargo against the island from the pontiff's criticism."We obviously welcome his visit to Cuba," State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters after the 84-year-old leader of the Roman Catholic Church ended his visit to the Communist island and longtime US nemesis.
"It was a good opportunity for him to deliver a message of religious freedom and human rights to the Cuban government and we believe those messages were obviously conveyed in his conversations with Cuban leaders," Toner said.
The pope called for respect for "basic freedoms" during his visit to Cuba, in which he led an open-air mass in Havana's Revolution Square and met revolutionary icon Fidel Castro.
The pope also criticized the US economic embargo, saying that such "restrictive economic measures imposed from outside the country unfairly burden its people."
Toner said that the United States has been "quite clear why we have the embargo in place."
"Our Cuba policy is focused on improving relations between the American people and the Cuban people. We've taken steps to that end to prove that kind of... cooperation," Toner said.
The United States kept its embargo on Cuba since 1962, three years after Fidel Castro's revolution overthrew a US-backed government. The embargo enjoys strong support from many Cuban Americans.
President Barack Obama has eased some measures, including by making it easier for Cuban Americans to visit relatives on the island, and said he would be ready to change the policy if he sees evidence of reform.