By Sue Pleming and Arshad Mohammed
WASHINGTON, April 4 (Reuters) - Cuba must make bolder reforms, free political prisoners and improve human rights before Washington can engage President Raul Castro and end a half-century of isolation, a U.S. official said on Friday.
In an interview with Reuters as part of a Latin American summit series, the State Department's top diplomat for the region, Tom Shannon, said recent reforms in Cuba showed pressure for change was building inside the communist island.
"These things, as small as they are, are good but they are clearly not enough from our point of view," said Shannon, assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs.
Raul Castro, since officially succeeding his ailing brother Fidel Castro as president in February, has begun lifting some of the state's economic restrictions.
Cubans can now buy computers, DVDs and other products, stay at tourist resorts and access cell phone service, all previously off-limits.
Shannon said changes could not just be about what Cubans could buy.
"We would urge the Cubans to be bolder, more audacious in their reform, and to ensure that as they undertake these reforms, that they build in a human rights and democracy ... component," said Shannon.
Washington broke off diplomatic relations with Havana in 1961, two years after Fidel Castro seized power in a revolution and turned Cuba into a communist state.
Communications were restored with the opening of low-level diplomatic missions called interest sections in 1978 but a strict U.S. sanctions regime remains in place.
Washington has been preparing in recent years for Castro's departure but the hand-over to Raul Castro dampened any hopes of major changes that could lead to an opening with Washington.
Before Raul Castro formally took over, the Bush administration dubbed him "dictator lite."
"We ultimately believe that the way Cuba begins a larger transition process that is both peaceful and enduring is by releasing political prisoners and showing that the Cuban state doesn't require a repressive apparatus to manage political dialogue," said Shannon.
In a speech last July, Raul Castro said Havana was open to talks with Washington to end more than four decades of hostility, but only when U.S. President George W. Bush had left the White House.
CHANGE FOR ENGAGEMENT
"Ultimately, we don't want our engagement to be strengthening an existing state. We want our engagement to be transforming that state. We want our engagement to be part of a broader process of change," Shannon said.
Shannon said he believed the recent changes were made for several reasons -- first to send a signal to the Cuban people that change was coming but also to challenge the United States.
"Ultimately, the Cubans count on us being rigid and not being able to respond," he said.
Cuba also hoped to attract countries that "instinctively" wanted to engage with it but were reluctant to do so because of the nature of the government, said Shannon, adding Washington had urged caution and patience on the part of those nations.
He said Cuba needed to find suitable interlocutors to help the country change course, citing South Africa as an example where the apartheid government released political prisoner Nelson Mandela and invited his then-banned African National Congress out of exile.
Shannon said that while Raul Castro was in charge on a day-to-day basis of Cuban affairs, Fidel Castro was still "very much alive." He said the new president had surrounded himself with hard-liners connected to his brother. (Editing by Peter Cooney)
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