Raul Castro

Barack Obama: 'Change is going to happen in Cuba'

He is the first sitting US president to visit since the 1959 revolution, which heralded decades of hostility between the two countries.

Mr Obama said change would happen in Cuba and that Cuban President Raul Castro understood that.

The two leaders met to talk about trade and held a joint news conference.

Mr Castro denied that there are political prisoners in Cuba, telling journalists to "give him a list" and then they would be released "tonight".

Cuba parliament meets, live-tweets session for 1st time

President Raul Castro was attending the gathering and was expected to make his first public comments since the United States and Cuba announced they will re-establish diplomatic relations on Monday and reopen embassies in each other's respective capitals.

State-run website Cubadebate reported that the National Assembly was considering a final budget report for 2014 and the status of Cuba's economic plan over the first half of this year.