WASHINGTON: Dismissing calls to end hardline American policies towards Cuba, United States President George W Bush has said that Washington will continue to focus on the abuses of Havana unless there is real change in the leadership of that country.
    
"A few weeks ago reports of the supposed retirement of Cuba's dictator (Fidel Castro) initially led many to believe that the time had finally come for the United States to change our policy on Cuba and improve our relations with the regime. That sentiment is exactly backward," Bush said on Friday.
    
"To improve relations, what needs to change is not the United States, what needs to change is Cuba. Cuba's government must begin a process as peaceful democratic change," Bush said after meeting with relatives of jailed democratic activists.
    
"So far, all Cuba has done is replace one dictator with another. And its former ruler is still influencing events from behind the scenes," the president said referring to the recent handover of power from Fidel to his brother Raul Castro.
    
"This is the same system, the same faces, and the same policies that led Cuba to its miseries in the first place."
    
"We've encouraged private citizens and charities to deliver food and medicine and other assistance directly to the people of Cuba," he said, adding "as a result, the American people are the largest providers of humanitarian aid to the Cuban people in the entire world."
    
"But the sad fact is that life will not improve for the Cuban people until their system of government changes," Bush added.