HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): Spain's foreign minister will visit Cuba in early April, Madrid's embassy announced Wednesday, the first EU diplomat to visit the island since European Union sanctions in 2003.

Miguel Angel Moratinos will meet with Cuban officials "to review bilateral relations," said embassy spokesman Angel Martinez.

The European Union imposed sanctions on the island in June 2003 following a crackdown on political dissidents. The sanctions were lifted in January 2005.

Cuban government press reports said that Moratinos will meet Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, and is seeking a meeting with acting president Raul Castro.

President Fidel Castro, 80, temporarily transferred power to his brother Raul after undergoing what he described as delicate intestinal surgery in July 2006.

Martinez did not say who Moratinos would meet.