"The economic blockade policy remains in place," complained Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, as he unveiled a report to be presented to the United Nations General Assembly on the negative impact of the embargo.

"The arrival of a new US president has not meant any change at all" for Cuba Rodriguez said.

The US Treasury Department on September 3 eased money transfer and travel rules against Havana, in a bid for improved ties.

But as proof that Washington's Cuba policy remains essentially unchanged, Rodriguez pointed to an order that Obama signed this week extending for another year the "Trading with the Enemy Act."

The law bans exchanges with any nation considered a threat and serves as a basis for the trade embargo against Havana.

"Obama was elected on a platform of 'change' but with respect to the economic blockade against Cuba there has been no change," Rodriguez said.

The UN General Assembly has condemned the US trade embargo on 17 times separate occasions.

Washington has been encouraging Cuba -- the only one-party communist state in the Americas -- to make progress on human rights issues if it expects farther-reaching reforms in US-Cuban relations.

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