CUBA and the United States ended the latest round of talks on lifting the criminal blockade of the island on Wednesday.

Cuban Trade Minister Rodrigo Malmierca met US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, the first White House cabinet member to visit Havana since Secretary of State John Kerry reopened the US embassy in August.

Mr Malmierca said: “We know it will not be an easy process, there are many differences, but the willingness exists.”

While acknowledging that US President Barack Obama had lifted some of the restrictions on Cuba, the minister stressed that this was insufficient.

“We must continue working to end that policy, since today it constitutes the main obstacle to progress towards the normalisation of relations between the two nations,” he said.

Ms Pritzker reiterated Mr Obama’s desire to end the 55-year blockade.

“The president wants to see the embargo lifted, but the president realises it will take time,” she said, alluding to opposition on both sides of the US Congress to detente.

Chicago billionairess Ms Pritzker ran the financial side of Mr Obama’s 2008 presidential bid and co-chaired his 2012 campaign.

As a member of the Chicago Board of Education and chairwoman of the city’s public education fund she frequently clashed with the Chicago Teachers Union.

Her Hyatt luxury hotel chain has benefited from Chicago’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) policy, by which firms are exempted from future taxation if they invest in development projects.

The union says that TIF takes money away from schools and gives it to property developers.