HAVANA · A year and a half after freezing relations with European diplomats, Cuba has called a truce, re-establishing contacts with eight embassies after a European Union commission recommended dissidents no longer be invited to National Day celebrations in Havana.

Monday's announcement comes as the EU initiated efforts to normalize ties with Cuba, which deteriorated sharply when European diplomats began showing support for 75 political prisoners by inviting dissidents to embassy receptions.

Although the EU continues to call for the release of the remaining imprisoned dissidents, a European commission of experts on Latin America last month recommended the embassies stop inviting both dissidents and Cuban officials to their National Day celebrations for the next six months. The EU plans to maintain contacts with the opposition movement, however it also wants to end the diplomatic stalemate and engage the Cuban government.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque said official contacts with Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Greece, Portugal and Sweden would resume immediately "as a result of the decision by the EU's Latin American committee to drop invitations to National Day celebrations for mercenaries paid and directed by the U.S. government."

Pérez Roque did not comment on resuming ties with other European countries with embassies in Havana such as the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia. The Netherlands, which currently hold the EU's presidency, and Czech Republic have been particularly critical of Cuba's human rights record.

One European diplomat in Havana, who declined to be named, said Pérez Roque's announcement was timed "to influence the decision-making process" in Brussels where European foreign ministers will meet this month to consider adopting the commission's recommendations. They also could decide whether to resume high-level visits of European officials to Cuba. If adopted, they would be reviewed in six months.

The diplomat rejected Havana's decision to establish ties with some EU embassies and not others.

"The Cubans cannot differentiate between us and say some of us are good guys and others not," the diplomat said. "If there is a common policy on our side I think it is unacceptable that there be different treatment on their side."

Vanessa Bauza can be reached at vmbauza1@yahoo.com

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