CRI听力:Obama: No Decision Yet on Cuba as State Sponsor of Terror

U.S. President Barack Obama says he has yet to make a decision whether to remove Cuba from the US list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

He made the comments during a brief stop-over in Jamaica while on his way to Panama for the Summit of the Americas.

"There's a process involved in reviewing whether or not a country should be on the State Sponsor of Terrorism list. That review has been completed at the State Department. It is now forwarded to the White House. Our interagency team will go through the entire thing and then present it to me with a recommendation. That hasn't happened yet."

Cuba's listing as a state terror sponsor is one of the major hurdles left to overcome in Washington's diplomatic rapprochement with Havana.

Meanwhile, it's widely expected Obama will speak with Cuban President Raul Castro at the summit in Panama, although no formal meeting has been scheduled.

"In terms of the overall process of establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba, I think that they are proceeding as I expected. I never foresaw that immediately overnight everything would transform itself."

The Obama administration announced plans to normalize its relations with Cuba in December after decades of isolation.

It had been expected the two countries would re-open embassies in their respective countries ahead of the Summit of the Americas session in Panama this weekend.

However, three rounds of talks have failed to make much headway.

The Cuban side has been pointing at Washington's failure to delist Havana as a sponsor of state terrorism as the main reason.