''Despite US maneuvers, there are no essential problems between Cuba and the majority of its emigrants,'' Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said today at the opening session of the Meeting of Representatives of Cubans Abroad against the US Blockade and Terrorism, underway in Havana's Hotel Nacional until Friday.

The minister specially thanked those coming from the United States for challenging the legal restrictions imposed by President Bush, and said Cuba puts a lot of effort into making communication easier between residents abroad and their families in the island.

Some 400,000 emigrants have already normalized their migratory status, said Perez Roque. Last year we welcomed 193,000 residents abroad, a record figure, he stressed. Cuban patriots have set up organizations of support in 40 countries.

Cubas number one diplomat referred to the conference as an exchange of experiences, and called for a joint effort in support of the resistance of the Cuban people facing the new harsher measures taken by the White House, limiting visits and remittances to families from the US.

"Another meeting of the kind with Cuban residents in South America will take place next October", confirmed Perez Roque, and cited previous events of the kind held last year in Paris and Berlin with European emigrants, and others are to take place in Belgium and Nicaragua later in 2008.

(mathaba.net)