The first secretary at the Czech embassy in Cuba, Stanislav Kazecky, arrives at Havana's Jose Marti airport 15 April 2006, heading for Prague. AFP PHOTO/Adalberto ROQUE

"My position is that the soft approach to Cuba has borne no fruit, no positive fruit," Svoboda said at a news conference in Prague with Stanislav Kazecky, a Czech diplomat thrown out of Havana on spying charges.

"We want a change," Svoboda told AFP.

He said he could not give immediate details on what concrete changes he would seek in the 25-member EU's relations with Havana.

Svoboda and Kazecky, the first secretary of the Czech diplomatic mission in Havana, who flew into Prague on Sunday after Cuban authorities refused to extend his visa, rebutted the spying charges made by Cuban authorities.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said on Friday that Kazecky was a spy for the US government and had "carried out intelligence work and subversive tasks."

Kazecky said he had never taken photographs of forbidden military installations, as claimed by the Cuban authorities. "I never had an interest in doing such things," he told AFP.

He met representatives of the Cuban democratic opposition and civic associations "the same as other diplomats," he said. "There was nothing extraordinary in this."

The Cuban decision to cut short his normal four year mission after only two years was "a reaction to Czech policy," Kazecky added, echoing a statement from the Czech foreign ministry that Cuba disliked Prague's championing of human rights in the country.

Svoboda said Czech policy in Cuba was aimed at fostering a "democratic and prosperous country." There was no question of the Czech Republic funding mercenary groups or having its policy determined by the United States, he said. "We have an independent foreign policy," he added.