(MADRID) - Cuban authorities and the French presidency of the European Union will meet "soon" in a first step towards the resumption of their political dialogue, Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said Tuesday.

"There will soon be a meeting, which will be official, between the French presidency of the EU and Cuban authorities," he said during an appearance before a Spanish senate commission.

The goal of the meeting is to "definitively formalise the opening and the start of the political dialogue between Cuba and the EU," he added without specifying a date or location for the talks.

Earlier this month the EU representative in Havana, Javier Nino, said the Cuban government had accepted the resumption of political dialogue with the 27-nation bloc.

The move follows the EU's lifting of sanctions on Cuba in June.

EU-Cuba relations were frozen in 2003 when the EU imposed sanctions on the island nation in retaliation for the imprisonment of more than 70 dissidents, and the execution of three men convicted of hijacking a passenger ferry and demanding it be taken to the United States.

After a 2005 initiative from Spain to normalise relations, the EU moved definitively on June 19 to establish "political dialogue" and encourage changes carried out by Raul Castro's government.

The EU's requirements for the suspension of sanctions include an annual review of relations, "improvement of the human rights situation" and the "release of political prisoners, including detainees imprisoned in 2003."

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