AKIPRESS.COM - President Barack Obama told Congress on Tuesday he intends to remove Cuba from a U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, clearing the main obstacle to restoring diplomatic relations and reopening embassies shut for more than half a century.

Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro sat down at a Western Hemisphere summit in Panama on Saturday for the first meeting of its kind between U.S. and Cuban leaders in nearly 60 years, reports Reuters. 

Cuba’s communist government had said normal relations between the two former Cold War foes would be impossible as long as it remained on the U.S. blacklist. Obama ordered a review of Cuba’s status after he and Castro announced a diplomatic breakthrough on Dec. 17.

Cuba was placed on the list in 1982 when it was aiding rebel movements in Africa and Latin America, but Havana long ago ceased supporting foreign insurgencies. Presence on the list, however, has continued to limit its access to international banking and overseas financial markets.

Foreign investors in Cuba said delisting the country would prove positive for the Caribbean island's economy. Banks could legally do business with Cuba while it was on the list but the regulations proved onerous, leading 20 banks to stop doing business with the Cuban government or Cuban interests in third countries over the past 18 months, Cuba said.

"The Cuban government recognizes the fair decision made by the president of the United States to eliminate Cuba from a list that it never should have been included on," Josefina Vidal, the Cuban foreign ministry's chief of U.S. affairs, said in a statement.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement welcoming Obama's decision that "circumstances have changed since 1982,” when Cuba was listed “because of its efforts to promote armed revolution by forces in Latin America."

In his report to Congress, Obama certified that “the government of Cuba has not provided any support for international terrorism during the preceding six-month period,” and “has provided assurances that it will not support acts of international terrorism in the future.”