HAVANA, Jan. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- Cuba announced Monday it has resumedofficial contacts with the eight European Union countries of France, Britain, Germany, Italy, Austria, Greece, Portugal and Sweden.

    Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez said the decision was made after an EU commission recommended that member countries work to improve relations with Havana, in part by stopping inviting dissidents to national holiday celebrations at their embassies in Havana.

    "Due to these pronouncements, Cuba has decided to resume official contact with a group of EU countries," Perez told a news conference, which was attended by ambassadors of these European countries in Havana.

    Relations between Havana and the EU were frozen since mid-2003,when the EU applied diplomatic sanctions to the island country in response to its arrest of 75 dissidents and sentencing them to prison terms of six to 28 years.

    Among the measures adopted by the EU were the ending of political dialogue, limiting of high-level government visits and reduction of member states' participation in cultural events in the country.

    Cuba responded by relinquishing all economic aid from the EU, its officials stopped participating in EU receptions, and its foreign minister refused to receive EU ambassadors who sought to see him.

    By late November as the EU reviewed its sanctions against Cuba,Havana began releasing some of the dissidents from prison. Enditem