The United States and Cuba concluded on Monday a second round of talks aimed at re-establishing direct mail service between the two countries after a 50-year ban, but left for later the most sensitive issue - Cuban planes landing on US soil.

The Cuban Foreign Ministry said both had agreed to continue the talks in the near future and that Cuba had emphasized "working out the transportation of mail by regular direct routes in both directions" was key to a successful conclusion.

The US State Department said, "The goal of the talks is for the United States and Cuba to work out the details for a pilot program to directly transport mail between the two countries".

Cuba said talks between the postal services of the two countries took place "in a respectful manner", and the US Interests Section said US officials "described the discussions as fruitful".

The US delegation, led by Lea Emerson, the US postal service executive director for international postal services, was to tour Cuban mail facilities on Tuesday, the US Interests Section said.

The two countries do not have diplomatic relations, but maintain lower-level missions in each other's capitals.

Direct mail service between the US and Cuba has been suspended since 1963. Despite the ban, letters and other mail still flow between the US and the island nation 145 kilometers away through other countries, such as Canada, Mexico and Panama.

Relations between the two countries have been frozen since soon after Cuba's 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro. Washington has maintained economic sanctions on Cuba for more than half a century.

Monday's talks took place amid a few signs the administrations of US President Barack Obama and President Raul Castro have not completely given up on some improvement in the hostile standoff.

On again, off again

Former British ambassador to Cuba Paul Webster Hare, who lectures on international relations at Boston University, said Cuba's decision not to allow former US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden to fly from Russia to Cuba en route to Latin America was significant.

"The Cubans recognized that for any prospect of better relations they needed to avoid more long-term irritants," he said.

Obama restarted talks on immigration and postal service with Cuba in 2009, ending their suspension by US president George W. Bush in 2004.

The separate talks were seen as a sign of further thawing in US-Cuba relations under Obama, who had earlier relaxed restrictions on remittances and travel to the island for Cuban Americans.

Both the postal and immigration talks were suspended again soon after the arrest in 2009 of US contractor Alan Gross, sentenced in 2011 to 15 years for his role in setting up an underground Internet network in Cuba.

Cuba has hinted at a possible swap of Gross for four Cuban agents arrested 15 years ago and still being held in the US on espionage convictions.

Cuba allowed a US doctor to visit Gross in August, something it had refused to do in the past.

A significant improvement in US-Cuba relations must include the release of Gross and the Cuban agents, according to some analysts, while others said progress on secondary issues could lead to more significant change.

"Their release may ultimately come from a process of improving relations between Cuba and the US, where both nations engage in a progressive tit for tat," said Carlos Saladrigas, a Cuban-American businessman who advocates engagement with Havana.

"Politically it is easier to conceive of their release as a consequence of a process than as the trigger," he said.

(China Daily 09/18/2013 page10)