MADRID, Spain (AFP):  Spain and the United States will work more closely together to encourage democracy in Cuba, despite conflicting approaches to the communist state, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. AFP PHOTO

"We agreed that we are going to intensify our efforts through our political directors and others to better align our tactics so that our countries can help to promote democracy in Cuba," she told reporters after talks with Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos in Madrid.

"Spain has a different view about how to get to a democratic Cuba but we spent our time on how to communicate clearly that there must be a democratic transition in Cuba," she added.

The United States and Spain have profoundly different opinions about how to encourage democratic advances in the Caribbean island, and these have contributed to a cooling of relations between the two nations in recent years.

Washington has a policy of isolating Cuba and ailing President Fidel Castro. It has enforced trade sanctions and a travel ban against Havana for 45 years.

Madrid is pursuing a policy of constructive engagement with Cuba, which was one of its colonies until Spain's defeat in a war with the United States in 1898.

Spain and Havana agreed to hold political consultations, including on the issue of human rights, during a visit to Cuba last month by Moratinos.

It was the first such visit by a European Union foreign minister since the bloc imposed sanctions on the island in 2003.

Washington has condemned the visit, and especially the fact that Moratinos avoided meeting with Cuban dissidents during his stay.

Moratinos said high ranking Spanish government officials have met with Cuban dissidents in recent months and predicted Rice "would eventually be convinced that the Spanish approach has positive results."

"Don't count on it," Rice responded, adding: "I have real doubts about the value of engaging with a regime that is anti-democratic."

"People who are struggling for a democratic future need to know that they are supported by those of us who are lucky enough to be free," she said.

Rice said the United States had an obligation to speak out in favour of democracy and stressed it had "outstanding relations" with governments of both the left and the right in Latin America.

"We are not a country that believes that it is up to us to choose what democratically elected leaders a country will have," she said.

"We have very good relations with the governments of Uruaguay, Brazil, Chile that come from the political left as well as countries that come from the centre-right like Colombia or Peru," she added.

The EU is split on policy towards Cuba. Italy and Germany join Spain at the forefront of countries seeking dialogue, while Poland and the Czech Republic, former communist states close to Washington, favor pressuring Havana for democratic change.