'Clerical error' delays EU lifting of Cuba sanctions

(LUXEMBOURG) - A "clerical error" on Monday delayed the definitive lifting of EU sanctions against Cuba, a Swedish diplomatic source said.

The move, aimed at encouraging democracy on the island in the post-Fidel era, was due to be approved Monday by EU agriculture ministers meeting in Luxembourg. However the Swedes held up the deal as the paperwork wasn't all in place.

"It's not a political problem at all, it's just a procedural issue, a clerical error," the Swedish source said.

The lifting of the European Union sanctions is largely a symbolic political move as the measures have been suspended since 2005.

A small minority of EU member states, led by the Czech Republic, along with the Netherlands and Denmark, had been reluctant to definitively lift them, insisting that the EU should continue to press on the prisoners and wider human rights issues.

To overcome this reluctance, the EU nations agreed to attach several conditions to the scrapping of its sanctions, including reviewing the measure after a year in light of the human rights situation in Cuba and continuing contacts with the island's political opposition.

"The problem is that when the text was submitted this morning, the annex with the conditions was missing from the text, that's the problem. It's just a clerical error... As long as we get the right text we're fine," the Swedish source in Luxembourg said.

EU officials were rushing to re-include the necessary information so that the official decision to lift the sanctions could be made later Monday or on Tuesday.

Washington has said already said it is "disappointed" by the EU decision favouring Cuba, which it said remains an authoritarian regime despite recent reforms.

The measures were imposed in 2003 after Cuba jailed 75 dissidents and executed three young Cubans who had attempted to escape to the United States.

However they have had little effect as the authorities in Havana have only released 20 of the 75, mostly for medical reasons.

Many European officials have called for the lifting of the sanctions.

"We see encouraging signs in Cuba and I think that we should show the population in Cuba that we are ready to work with them," EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said recently.

"We should not be insensitive to what is going on," she added, in reference to the first steps of Raul Castro since taking the reins from his ailing brother Fidel.